FOUR schools won the honour to represent Furness in the Cumbria School Games after an intense gymnastics final.

Children from Yarlside Academy, Lindal and Marton, Newton Village School and St George's topped the tables among 21 teams at the district competition.

Yarlside and Lindal each saw two teams progress to the Cumbria finals in Penrith on March 29 – all looking to defend county titles they won last year as Furness went on to claim the overall School Games crown.

Lindal – who claimed an unprecedented three Cumbria triumphs in 2016 – were forced to settle for two titles in the Small Schools event this time round.

It was Newton who denied them another clean sweep, taking the Key Steps One honours as the winners of the district cluster events all came together at Furness Academy.

The youngest children in the event – from Years 1 and 2 – performed a floor routine and either a vault or a bench walk depending on their ability.

As in all the Key Steps competitions, they started with a mark of 10.00, with deductions made if any errors crept in.

In the Large Schools event, it was St George's who stopped Yarlside taking all three titles once again, triumphing in the Key Steps One competition.

At Key Steps Two and Key Steps Three, however, there was no stopping either Lindal and Marton or Yarlside, who both came out on top of the pile, with their teams impressing the student judges from Furness Academy and Dowdales.

School Games organiser Oliver Carswell said: “It was a great competition. With three Key Step finals took place together, it provided a real feeling of a big gymnastic meet with lots of different things going on at the same time.

“All of the gymnasts were excellent, very well behaved when they weren’t competing and trying to do their best when it was their turn to perform.

“The small schools Key Steps One and Three competitions were very close. Just 1.4 marks separated Newton and second place, with 0.19 separating Lindal and Marton and the runners-up.

“The closest completion was the large schools Key Step One, where St George’s just edged it by 0.1 points.”

Other schools represented at the finals were Dalton St. Mary’s, South Walney Infants, Low Furness, Penny Bridge, Vickerstown, Sir John Barrow, Church Walk and Burlington.

All six winning teams will go forward to Penrith Leisure Centre at the end of the month looking for further success. Points scored their will be counted towards the overall Cumbria School Games tally, with the games themselves – comprising events such as Tri-Golf, orienteering and hockey – held in Carlisle in July.