The third edition of the West Yorkshire Multisport Panathlon took place in the brand new Huddersfield Leisure Centre with all 5 areas of the county competing.
The 2016 final saw a new champion emerge, Wakefield, whose students came from Kettlethorpe High School, who defeated two times champions, Calderdale, who finished runners-up.
Both teams saw off competition from Leeds, Bradford and Kirklees on a fantastic day of sporting action involving 92 disabled young people from across 14 schools.
Wakefield won four events – boccia, table cricket, kurling and field athletics – on their way to victory with a total of 54 points. Calderdale with two wins in the polybat and Athletics races secured 48 points.
The other three teams fought out a close battle for third with Kirklees taking that position with 34, Leeds fourth with 24 and Bradford finishing with 22 points.
Lucy Wall, Events Officer from Yorkshire Sports Foundation said, “What a brilliant event, we are so pleased to have had 14 schools from across the county involved and already discussions have be held by teachers today about local Panathlon’s prior to this. We are all looking forward to next year’s edition. Huge thanks goes to the Panathlon team for a great day.”
“What a fantastic event this was,” said Panathlon COO Tony Waymouth, “Each year more schools become involved across Yorkshire, and these teams today are made up of 3 or 4 schools each, so it’s also about their camaraderie. We thank Yorkshire Sports Foundation for their support “
Helen Holdsworth, SGO for Leeds said, “We have more children who would benefit, I think as an area, a Leeds Panathlon day would be a great and further introduction to this great concept”
Panathlon has also trained 10 Leaders with Moderate learning difficulties from John Jamieson School in Leeds, who worked alongside 15 leaders from New College of Pontefract in helping deliver the event.
Final Results – 1st Wakefield 54pts, 2nd Calderdale 48 pts, 3rd Kirklees 34pts, 4th Leeds 24 pts, 5th Bradford 22 pts
Many thanks to Yorkshire Sports Foundation for continued support.
