13th UK School Games

Loughborough University  – Friday 31st August

The 2018 UK School Games National Finals, for the most talented young athletes across the UK, were staged at the Loughborough University campus. Between Thursday 30th of August and Sunday 2nd of September, more than 1400 young athletes competed across 11 sports, five of which included disability competition. The events took place at venues across the university complex. Five new sports were included at this year’s event, canoeing, laser run netball, rowing and triathlon. Irish, Scottish and Welsh Athletes represent their countries at the games. English athletes represent their allotted regions. All competing athletes are in the under 17 age category.

Kingston upon Hull’s Shaun Kerry was selected to represent Northern England in the hammer throw. He had made his UK Games debut at the 2017 event, which was also staged at Loughborough, where he had been the bronze medal winner. He was disappointed with his overall performance at the previous year’s games and was looking for an improvement in 2018. He has enjoyed another good track & field season this year, where for the 4th consecutive year, he has won both the Northern and the County hammer titles. He also took the bronze medal at Julys English Schools Championships, at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham. Five days before these UK games he had won the silver medal at the England Athletics Championships in Bedford.

The Loughborough hammer final saw Shaun launch out a new PB of 68.31 metres, an improvement of 1.16 metres, to take the UK games title and the gold medal.