Yarlside and South Walney Juniors are celebrating qualification for the Cumbria Finals of the School Games after coming through the Sportshall Athletics Furness Final at Furness Academy.

The top two Year 5/6 teams from each of the four cluster competitions that had taken place in the preceding week were battling out for a chance to represent the Furness area at county level.

The schools taking part alongside Yarlside and South Walney Juniors were Askam, Lindal & Marton, St Mary’s, Pennybridge, Victoria Academy and Holy Family, who had all qualified from their respective clusters.

All eight were represented by teams of 12 pupils, which were split evenly between six boys and six girls, with each of them taking part in two track and field events during the course of the afternoon, with points up for grabs in all of them.

On the track, there was an obstacle race and 2x1, 2x2 and 4x1 relays, while the field events included speed bounce, standing long jump, triple jump, foam javelin, chest push and vertical jump, the last of those testing how high the children could reach on a wall.

The pupils tried to accumulate as many points as possible for their team, with the top two totals qualifying for the Cumbria Finals and eventually it was Yarlside and South Walney Juniors who booked a trip to Penrith at the end of March.

For Yarlside, it was one step closer to retaining the sportshall athletics School Games title they claimed in April.

The previous Tuesday, 300 Year 3/4 pupils from 25 primary or junior schools crammed inside Furness Academy for their own School Games Sportshall Athletics Furness Finals.

With no County Finals in that age group, this was a chance to be crowned as Furness champion, with the high stakes not surprisingly raising the noise levels inside substantially.

The schools taking part were Holy Family, Ormsgill, Victoria Academy, St. James’, Cambridge, St. Pius, Barrow Island, Dane Ghyll, Yarlside, Chetwynde, St. Columba’s, Vickerstown, Penny Bridge, George Romney, Burlington, Sir John Barrow, South Walney Juniors, Low Furness, Askam, Broughton, Newbarns, Croftlands, St. Paul’s, St. George’s and Pennington.

The top five schools were as follows:

1. Yarlside

2. Sir John Barrow

3. Holy Family

4. Dane Ghyll

5. Chetwynde