ATHLETICS took centre-stage for dozens of South Cumbrian primary schools and scores of excited children.

More than 350 youngsters packed into the sports hall at Hoops during the day to test themselves across track and field disciplines in sportshall competitions.

Years 5 and 6 pupils were taking part in the district finals of the Cumbria Schools Games, while those from Years 3 and 4 were having a first taste of the event in a new competition.

Eight primary schools from across Barrow, Dalton, Ulverston and surrounds were involved in the Schools Games finals, having qualified through their cluster events.

Low Furness, Sir John Barrow, Yarlside and Victoria Academies, Askam Village School, Lindal and Marton, South Walney Juniors and Holy Family each sent 12-strong teams – made up of six boys and six girls.

All of the athletes competed in two track and two field events, with the obstacle relay, one-lap relay, two-lap relay, four-x-one-lap relay, chest push, speed bounce, standing long jump, vertical jump, standing triple jump and foam javelin to be contested.

Yarlside ran, threw and jumped out eventual winners with a big score of 154.

Second place was closer to call, with just points separating the team in second from the team in fourth.

Victoria Academy narrowly edged out the rest with a score of 120 points to be the second team to make it through to the county finals in Penrith in March.

Furness school games organiser Oliver Carswell said: “The final results show just how close the competition was.

“The teams and teachers have been putting a lot of practice in since last year, especially on the hand-overs of the batons.

“A lot of the races were separated by only a couple of tenths of seconds. I'm really looking forward to see how these teams do in the county finals.”

Upon the completion of the Year 5/6 event, teams from 22 schools enjoyed the Years 3/4 competition, split into two groups.

Dane Ghyll, Victoria Academy, Yarlside, Ormsgill, St George’s, St Paul’s, St Pius, Sacred Heart, St James, Newbarns, Roose, Holy Family, Pennington, Askam, Chetwynde, Low Furness, South Walney Juniors, George Romney, Sir John Barrow, Penny Bridge, Lindal and Marton and Newton all entered.

Teams and events followed the same format as the previous finals, with Askam ending the day up as winners, with a score of 225, narrowly beating Chetwynde, who scored 221.

Carswell said: “The competition was all about giving the Years 3 and 4 children the chance to practice a sportshall athletics event, so by the time they are in Years 5 and 6 they are completely comfortable with all the events.

“Enjoyment was definitely at the centre of why the competition was put on as well, no results were shared on the day, which meant no-one lost and no-one won, which is perfect for this age group.”

He added: “Having 22 teams enter caused me a massive headache about how the event should run.

“It was decided to split the competition in half as having all 264 children there at once would have been chaos!

“Thankfully, we managed to keep on time which was down to the excellent Year 11 leaders from Furness Academy. It was a big ask of them and they handled it perfectly.”