WILLIAM Edwards School welcomed back two English Schools champions this week.

Katie Head and William Adeyeye both struck gold at the prestigious championships in Gateshead last weekend.

Year 10 pupil Head broke the intermediate girls hammer record to win with a distance of 60.05m while Year 9 pupil Adeyeye won the shot with a huge putt of 16.21m and then went on to be part of the victorious Essex 4x100m team.

There was a nearly a third medal for the William Edwards contingent representing Essex as Year 11 pupil Joe Winn went agonisingly close to winning a medal in the intermediate boys high jump.

Winn finished fourth with a clearance of 1.96m.

PE teacher at the school, Martin Eyles, said: “They are all an inspiration to other pupils at the school.

“Katie’s dad (Paul Head) was an Olympic hammer thrower so we can’t claim to much credit with that but we support her as much as we can.

“William didn’t do athletics until he came to William Edwards. We got him into and alerted Thurrock Harriers and he has gone from there.

“He is a great multi-eventer and will represent Essex at the national penthatlon championships. He is the best at shot putt in the country, ranked top for long jump and is right up there in the hurdles too.

“Our aim is just to get as many kids as possible doing athletics and then helping them develop.

“We alert Thurrock Harriers to the best of them because in order to progress they need to be competing against better athletes on a regular basis.”

The school’s commitment to athletics is shown by the fact they have now won the Thurrock Schools Athletics Championships for a ninth year in a row.

l Two other Thurrock athletes competing at the English Schools Championships made finals.

Aveley’s Modupe Shokunbi finished seventh in the intermediate girls 100m (12.37s) while Chay Clark, a former William Edwards School pupil, was seventh in the senior girls 400m hurdles (65.19s).