Top athlete from Highfield and Brookham Schools secures two national titles

A gifted young athlete from an independent school in Liphook has won two national titles.

Talented Emily Sherlock, a Year 7 pupil at Highfield and Brookham Schools, secured the long jump title with a leap of 4.60m before running away with the 100m title in a sizzling 12.86 seconds at the National Prep Schools’ Athletics Championships at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham.

The fastest qualifier in the 100m heats in a time of 13.1 seconds, Emily easily lowered that mark to take gold and set a new prep schools record in the process. Her sub-13-second winning time was also the second fastest ever recorded by an U13 girl from any school.

The twin national titles in England’s second city rounded-off in spectacular style a successful spell for Emily, 12, who was awarded the senior victrix ludorum on sports day at Highfield at the end of June having won the girls’ 70m hurdles, long jump and 100m events, as well as competing in the girls’ 4x100m relay.

Emily was joined in Birmingham at the national finals by Highfield and Brookham Year 6 pupil Cristo Porter, who ran superbly to finish sixth in the U12 1500m in a new personal best time of 5 minutes 4 seconds – a new middle school record.

On receiving the good news on Monday afternoon, Highfield Headmaster Phillip Evitt said: “It was just the most wonderful news and a wonderful way to start the final week of term. Emily has been a standout performer on the athletics front all the way through her time at Highfield, but to earn two titles at national level, in two different disciplines, is a phenomenal achievement and one she should be incredibly proud of. The sky really is the limit for Emily and I will watch her athletics career with great interest.”

Emily was only denied the opportunity of adding to her golden tally in the West Midlands because the rules stated that the maximum number of events any athlete could enter was two, thus denying Emily a tilt at the long jump crown too.

Mr Evitt added: “Having seen both Emily and Cristo perform so well on sports day at the end of June, it’s no surprise that they both enjoyed such a successful day in Birmingham. Reaching the national finals is an incredible achievement in itself, but to break a school record and win two national titles between them is an extraordinary effort.”