Huge congratulations to Theo Fitzmaurice (Yr 9), who recently had an incredible weekend at the National Schools Biathlon finals, at which he represented St Christopher’s. Theo swam a personal best of 1:14.04 in the under 14s 100m and ran a personal best (by a full twenty seconds!) of 6:39.11 for the 1600m. This result saw him place 55th nationally and 3rd for the North West region, which we think is absolutely remarkable. The event was held at the Crystal Palace National Sports Centre in London on the 16th and 17th March and over two action-packed days of competition, saw around fourteen-hundred athletes compete fairly and enthusiastically across almost three-hundred separate heats of swimming and running. Theo qualified for entry in this hotly-contested competition after securing one of only a hundred and twenty available places, as a result of successfully meeting the entry criteria at both the Accrington Academy and Rossall Biathlon qualification stages in October 2018.
For swimming, Theo trains at Accrington Academy’s pool with ‘Pioneer 79’, an amateur swimming club with over six-hundred members across East Lancashire, and he’s been with them since he was eight. However, the only running that Theo does is during school PE lessons at through his own sense of motivation, which makes his recent achievements all the more impressive.
Mr Jones, Headteacher of St Christopher’s said:
“I am delighted to hear of Theo’s sporting success. To smash a personal best in two events is noteworthy in itself and to rank so highly in the national rankings just adds to the sense of triumph. Well done Theo!”
When we asked Theo himself about his achievements, he said:
“I hope to qualify for next year’s 2020 Biathlon and continue with my usual training. I have ambitions to gain further personal bests and have set myself a goal of achieving the required times to swim at county levels in future years. I’ll also continue to develop my running through the opportunities provided to me in school PE lessons.”
The whole school would like to echo the sentiments of Mr Parker, Head of PE, when he said:
“Well done, Theo... St Christopher's is proud!”