Golden girl Gilbody stars for Shropshire in Championships
Zoe Gilbody led by example as she made her last appearance in the English Schools Track and Field Championships a memorable one.
The Thomas Telford School student captained the Shropshire team for the event at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham, and signed off in style by adding another gold medal to her impressive collection.
She ran away from the field to win the senior girls' 3000m in nine minutes, 23 seconds - seven seconds clear of second-placed Freya Bradley (Avon).
It was her second fastest time ever and a European Championships qualifying time.
In her final school year, Gilbody now boasts a stunning record at the English Schools Championships having completed a full set of three track and three cross country titles.
She previously won the 1500m in 2022 in Manchester and the 3000m at Birmingham in 2023, as well as cross country titles at Liverpool in 2020, at Nottingham in 2023 and earlier this year in Sussex. No Shropshire athlete has ever managed this feat.
As well as receiving her gold medal she was also honoured by the English Schools Association to lead out the entire collection of teams in the Grand Parade on Saturday afternoon.
There was more medal success for Shropshire in the event, which saw the leading young athletes from 44 counties throughout England take part.
Joe Flynn, another Thomas Telford student, qualified for the final of the senior boys' 400m after finishing second in his heat in 48.58.
He went even quicker in the final, setting a personal best of 48.32 to take the bronze medal.
Thomas Telford's Paul Harrison also got in on the medal hunt, as he ran a gutsy race in the senior boys' 2000m steeplechase.
Always in the leading group, he battled away to take third place as he lowered his previous personal best by nine seconds to finish in 5.53.57.
There were a number of other fine performances from Shropshire athletes.
The junior mixed 4x100m relay team of Harriett Anlsow, Kaziah Bekoe, Chidiebube Hemuka and Ian Wang were just edged out of a medal place as they finished fourth - just 14 hundredths of a second behind Northamptonshire.
Their final time of 46.64 was the fastest ever by a junior Shropshire team.
The senior mixed relay team finished eighth in their final in 46.39, having run 45.70 to come home third in the heats.
Grace Kinsey, from Mary Webb School, Pontesbury, had an excellent junior girls' high jump competition as she finished fourth and equalled her personal best of 1.62m, while Wrekin College's Barnaby Rhodes was fourth in the senior boys' 100m.
Another senior boy who ran well was Shrewsbury School's Jack Kinrade.
He qualified for the 800m final with a time of 1.51.96 while easing up in his heat. In the very tactical final, Kinrade who has two English Schools medals to his name, finished fifth in 1.55.08.
Ralph Brown (The Thomas Adams School) set a personal best of 1.55.87 in his 800m heat and went on to finish seventh in the final.
As one of only two field eventers in the Shropshire team, Kadisha Nwachukwu (Idsall School) performed impressively to finish 10th in the intermediate girls' triple jump as she leapt 10.69m.
Shropshire are one of the smallest counties in terms of student population, but the senior boys finished second in Group C just four points behind winners Gloucestershire. Overall, Shropshire were 10th out of 14 teams in Group C.
