BAC’s talented U17 athlete , Patrick Sylla, won the long jump at the Sainsbury’s School Games in Manchester, with a distance of 6.72.

Despite hurting his back in the first jump, Patrick managed to clinch the title in the final round. He later gave an interview, explaining that despite not jumping a great distance by his high standards, he was still please with the victory. He also spoke of his strong season in 2014, and also praised the work of his coach, Zac Kerin, which has brought him on in leaps and bounds this year (please excuse the pun). Patrick was the Inter Boys long jump champion at the 2014 English Schools and also tops the national rankings for his age group, with a best of 7.31m.

I was unable to actually insert the video itself into the post, so please use the link below:

Click here to watch the interview with Patrick.

For those of you unfamiliar with the Games, it is an annual event for the best young athletes in the UK. Twelve different sports are included, such as Badminton, Athletics, Gymnastics, Cycling, Judo and Swimming, to name a few. Disability events are included in six of these sports, of which athletics is one.

Around 1600 young sportsmen and women took part in the Games. In the athletics discipline, there were seven regional teams; South West, South East, Midlands, North West, North East, Northern Ireland and Scotland.