National acclaim for Oakham's athletes

Published by Oakham School on Tuesday 6th of May 2014

Whilst many pupils take a well-earned break over the Easter holidays, four athletes from Oakham School were busy representing their country.

Two hockey players, Monty Jefferson and Maddie Pearce, took up their places in England squads. Josh Greaves placed 4th representing team GB in Duathlon, whilst Matthew Riddington won his first cap playing for the England U16 Rugby team.

'This really does show how outstanding the level of sporting talent is at Oakham School,' says Director of Sport, Iain Simpson. 'To have four of our pupils representing the country at the same time, for three different sports, is particularly impressive. We are proud to be a well-recognised training ground for national squads.'

Hockey success: Monty Jefferson took his place in England's U18 Hockey team during their four nations tour in Germany. Monty, aged 17, now has a number of U16 and U18 caps, as well as being Oakham's 1st XI team captain.
Fourteen-year-old Maddie Pearce, was one of only three girls in the country to be selected a year early to be a part of England's U16 squad. Maddie won two caps for playing in games against Holland at Lilleshall National Sports Centre in Shropshire.

Matthew Riddington, aged 15, won his first cap playing for England's U16 Rugby team. His first game was a great success too, with the team beating Scotland. As well as winning a place in Oakham's 1st XV a year early, he will also be taking part in the Leicester Tigers Academy next year.

Josh Greaves, aged 16, represented GB (Under 20s age group) in the European Sprint Duathlon held in Horst, Holland. He came an outstanding 4th place in this highly competitive field, narrowly missing the bronze medal by just 7 seconds!

Josh had a great first run (4.85k) and led the pack out, with a time of 15:41. He had worked hard through his winter training on his run and achieved the fastest run in the U20s group and was 14/302 overall. He really enjoyed the bike course (20k) through the beautiful and very flat town of Horst and surrounding countryside. This was incredibly fast as it was led by strong international cyclists from a range of age groups, many of them being time trial specialists. He left enough in the tank for a strong final run (2.8k) and battled head to head with the athlete in third position.

'I was really pleased with my performance,' says Josh. 'It was great fun to take part too, especially given that I had originally hoped to qualify in 2015, so to have placed 4th a year earlier is just great.'

16-year-old Josh has always been a keen runner and swimmer. He competes at County level in Cross Country and is a part of Oakham's athletics team. About two and a half years ago, Josh combined his love of both running and swimming to begin competing in Triathlons. After a recent shoulder injury, that has stopped him swimming competitively for 12 months, Josh switched his attentions from Triathlon to Duathlon. He manages to fit his training (five days a week) round his Biology, Chemistry, Maths and Geography A Levels.