The line-up for the 2015 Kent Panathlon final is complete after three fantastic days of sporting action.
Teams from Malling & Sevenoaks, Ashford, Canterbury and Sheppey & Sittingbourne have qualified for the final at Medway Park on June 25th after 241 competitors from 18 schools battled it out over three qualifying competitions.
A great week of action kicked off on Tuesday with the West Kent final at Malling School, where the Malling & Sevenoaks team – made up of Grange Park & Five Acre Wood Schools – won four out of six rounds to overcome Tonbridge & West Kent, Dartford and Gravesham.
There were some outstanding performances throughout the day, including a magical 6-0 end from Dartford in the boccia. Despite the highlight, Gravesham took boccia gold on countback after three teams tied on two wins each.
On Wednesday Sittingbourne Community College played host to the Central Kent final, where a strong Ashford team set out on their journey to defend their Kent title.
They did not disappoint, dominating the competition against Sheppey & Sittingbourne and Medway Chatham to win five out of the six rounds, despite fielding a different team to that which won the south regional final in October.
“This group haven’t been involved at a Panathlon before,” said Ellie Beasley, a teacher at Wyvern School. “I had some concerns about how they would get on but I was determined to involve these players as I believe Panathlon is the right competition for them, due to the nature of their disabilities.
“Their behaviour has been exemplary. They want to take part in everything and are showing such enthusiasm. They have been so different to how they usually are at school. Little things have surprised me, like going to shake their opponents hands without being prompted by teachers. I am very proud of them.”
Ashford narrowly failed to reach the reach the ultimate 60 point total, foiled by a great performance from a strong Medway Chatham polybat team, who won three out of their four games to prevent an Ashford clean sweep.
Despite not winning any individual events, a consistent performance from Sheppey & Sittingbourne, including five second place finishes, saw them claim second overall and qualify for the final as the highest-scoring runner-up.
The final day of Kent competition took place at Ursuline College in Westgate on Sea where Thanet, Shepway, Canterbury and Dover battled it out in the East Kent final.
A strong Canterbury team (pictured at top of page) claimed the final place in the overall Kent final, courtesy of victories in polybat, field athletics, relay races and boccia, where they won a tight contest on countback having finished level with overall runners-up Thanet.
Dover won the table cricket en route to third overall, while Shepway showed their class in the new age kurling to win all of their matches convincingly.
So our Kent final line-up on June 25th will be Malling, Ashford, Canterbury and Sheppey & Sittingbourne. We look forward to seeing all the teams compete again and to see who will be crowned Kent champions 2015!
To see all the results from our week of Kent qualifiers, see our results page.
We would like to say a big thank you to all of the 52 leaders who did a fantastic job officiating the competitions throughout the week. The leaders recently undertook training to prepare for the event – see our blog for further details.
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