Panathlon Challenge

Posted: Monday 27th February 2012
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Panathlon were in North London today at Northumberland Park Community School to train their year 10's to be officials for next weeks North London Final. The morning session also involved some of the students from the Vale school. Thanks to Tony Milliard for organising!! Looking forward to seeing these leaders in action next week, organising and officiating the competition, and also see the students from the Vale School competing for Team Haringey vs Waltham Forest, Enfield and Barnet.

Posted: Thursday 23rd February 2012
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Jack, one of the 17 Sports Leaders from Chessington who were trained by us in December, and then officiated at the regional competition yesterday, tells us his thoughts - 

Posted: Wednesday 22nd February 2012
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Merton & Richmond through to South Final

Panathlon visited Chessington Community College today for the South London first round competition involving Richmond, Merton & Kingston .

The teams quickly entered into the spirit of competition and what ensued was a wonderful celebration of sport! Merton lead the way. They took gold in the Boccia, Polybat and Table Cricket. They dominated the Boccia, winning 3 of their 4 matches, and I predict on current form will take gold in next months final. Their consistency of results was impressive across all the sports.

New Age Kurling went down to a tie-break when the last and deciding game ended on 2-2, Kingston took the tie-break in a one stone takes all push from each captain. Kingston also picked up a number of silver medals in the field and track athletics events and looked at home in this competition; we look forward to seeing more from them in future years.

I am really grateful for the support we received from the Chessington Community College and in particular, was impressed by their Sports Leaders, who were our Panathlon Officials for the day.

Congratulations to Merton who achieved their first ever Panathlon victory and also to Richmond who are through to their first regional final!

“Having attended the Panathlon for the first time, we were highly impressed with how everything was organised. From the T-Shirts to the medals and everyone helping, it has made us feel very welcome and the children are very proud at receiving their medals. You have done a fantastic job of making all abilities feel included. Cant wait to see you all at the next event. Thanks for a great day!” (Keely & Morgan, Dysart School – Kingston Team)

“Fantastic facilities, very well organised, great fun and a good sense of team spirit from students to staff! Panathlon leaders were great! We love the day!” (Perseid School, Merton)

Posted: Tuesday 21st February 2012
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"Our team of 44 competed really well today and showed great team spirit. It was a great day and was fantastic to meet students and staff from other schools in competing boroughs. Thanks Panathlon !" (Teacher at Swiss Cottage School)

"Another fantastic day at Panathlon today and we are delighted to have made the Final on March 21st against Wandsworth and Southwark." (Disability Sports Officer.)

"All of our youngsters, regardless of ability were able to actively take part in the many sporting events during the day. Fantastic day thank you !" (Teacher QE2 School Westminster)

"Everyone felt like a winner, Smiles and medals all around, thank you Panathlon !"
Teacher Westminster.

Posted: Wednesday 8th February 2012
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Panathlon trained 15 BTEC Student Leaders at John Fisher school and qualified them as "Panathlon Young Officials" in December and then depolyed them today as officials to organise and deliver the 6 Panathlon sports.

" We are proud to host the Panathlon Challenge. It is a celebration of sport and reflects the philosophy that everyone has ability! Our leaders thoroughly enjoyed their opportunity to share this special event!” (Fi Bell, John Fisher School)

One of the Young Leaders tweeted - "Helping @ panathlon at John Fisher School today really looking forward to it # inspirational # panathlon "

Posted: Thursday 2nd February 2012
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Panathlon were in sunny but freezing South East London today for the Bexley, Greenwich and Lewisham Competition. The Multi-Sports were played amongst a great atmosphere inside the Sports Hall and as the day went on, it became evident that Bexley and Greenwich are two closely matched teams.

Greenwich impressively won the Boccia, winning all 4 of their matches, and the New Age Kurling. They dominated the Field Athletics, winning 4 out of the 5 disciplines. In Precision Beanbag Abdulie from Greenwich threw a maximum, only the second result of this kind so far this season.

Bexley on the other hand, braving near freezing conditions, took Gold in the Football, and then won by a considerable margin in the Table Cricket. They squeezed past Lewisham in the Polybat, winning the final deciding set, to take the Gold.

Lewisham equipped themselves very well, they narrowly missed out in the Polybat and registered a number of silver medals including Table Cricket, Javelin and the Relay Races. They provided tough opposition to both Greenwich and Bexley, which is no mean feat.

It is not usual for a Panathlon team to wins 4 events to end up in second place, and that is what remarkably happened to Greenwich today. For the second year running only 2 points separated Greenwich and Bexley, the same margin and result. However, there is a difference - this year my hunch is that Greenwich will, with 60 points to their credit, go through to the East Final as the best runner up. We will wait until 29th February to confirm this. Well done to Bexley, it was their consistency of performances – never receiving a bronze medal throughout the tournament as a whole that enabled them to win through.

St Paul ’s Academy, who gracefully hosted today’s event, involved their BTEC Sports Leaders as our officials. A number of teachers approached me throughout the event to comment on their skill, the quality of the decisions and the enthusiasm and engagement they had involving all the players. Many thanks to them for hosting us so well.

Posted: Wednesday 1st February 2012
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Panathlon visited Southfields Community College today to see the Southwark team take on the Wandsworth team. Sometimes in sport the results don’t explain the nature of the games taking place, and today was one of those days. Southwark and Wandsworth were in tight competition throughout, despite what the leader table may suggest. The teams, comprising of 4 schools from each borough, took part in all the multi-sports in the sports hall - In the Boccia, it was one match a piece (6 ends matches) with Wandsworth pulling away only in the last 2 ends of the 3rd Match to take Gold. In New Age Kurling it was one match a piece, until Wandsworth took the final game. The same story with Polybat, this time it went to points scored to separate out the teams after the teams were tied after 10 sets! In Table Cricket Southwark had their first victory, having lost the first game, they came through in the second game knocking up 302 runs in the process. They took the tournament winning on run difference. In the athletics there were some impressive performances, and much fun being had particularly in during the races – the wheelchair race was particularly well competed and the mobility restriction races was so close, it even baffled the judges for a while. The event finished off with a large fun run, on least to warm everyone up!

The sports leaders did a great job in officiate the sports, Georgia Turner, Panathlon Official for the day wrote, “ I officiated the Polybat competition at the Panathlon today. It was a really great experience. I was confident to demonstrate my knowledge of the sports I had learnt from the Panathlon training day, and was eager to see the games played in a competitive environment. The children who played Polybat were delightful in every way: keen to learn and understand the rules and common faults of the game, as well as being extremely enthusiastic throughout. It was wonderful to watch them having such a great time, and to be a part of their day was intrinsically rewarding in a way you could only understand if you were to experience it yourself.”