Schools battle to be top of their class in West Yorkshire School Games

Following an Olympics style opening ceremony at Leeds Beckett University yesterday (Monday) they competed in the West Yorkshire School Games Summer Festival, in association with the university and organised by the Yorkshire Sport Foundation.

Calderdale won ten; Bradford won six; and Wakefield won two.

Pupils from Leeds, Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees and Wakefield took part in nine different sports including athletics, boccia, cycling, tri-golf, gymnastics, netball, new age kurling, tag rugby and tennis.

Leeds topped the medal table by virtue of having won two more golds than Kirklees - both districts won 11 medals.

The day marked 20 years of competitive school sport festivals in West Yorkshire.

Nigel Harrison, Chief Executive of organisers Yorkshire Sport Foundation, said: “Congratulations to all the schools who took part in this milestone event.

“Across 20 years, more than 34,000 schoolchildren have competed and more than 2,000 volunteers have helped make these events possible.

“As with each event in the last two decades, it was great to see everyone doing it with a smile on their face and getting so much enjoyment from it.

"I’d like to thank Leeds Beckett University for their continued support and we all look ahead to the 2019/20 events, and even more children getting the opportunity to experience the enjoyment sport can bring."

Athlete Ethan Hussey opened the School Games ceremony. He is a former School Games competitor, and has gone on to have many notable achievements in his fledgling athletics career.

He currently leads the UK rankings for 800m, 1500m and 3000m in his age group and is the fastest European over 1500m in the under 18 age category.

The first festival event took place in 1999 as the Youth Games and led the way for the national Millennium Youth Games in 2000.

Since then, more than 30,000 children have competed over the past two decades.

The event became known as the School Games from 2012.