For the tenth year in 12, St Clement Danes were champions at the Watford and District Schools Athletics Championships yesterday.

The Chenies Road school retained the title they have now won for four years in a row, after claiming victory in both the girls’ and boys’ overall standings.

Their closest rivals were Partmiter’s whose boys also finished second overall, but their girls were pushed into fourth place by Haberdashers’ and Queen’s respectively.

The annual event, which brings secondary schools from across the district to compete in track and field events for students in Years 7 to 10, was held at Woodside.

Ian Birkett, head of PE at Clement Danes, said the school’s clean sweep from its girls and boys had exceeded expectations.

He said: “It’s the best we have had for many years. We haven’t won both the boys and girls for a long time.

“We have got a special year with very committed students who have trained hard and who have done well throughout the season.

“We were probably helped that Haberdashers didn’t have a Year 10 boys team, but we’ll take it.

“There’s a lot of guys who have put a lot of time into this and they take a lot of pride in the performances.

“We are always under pressure to perform, we had a couple of dropped batons in the first hour and I thought it might not be our year, but they have come on strong throughout the day.”

Clement Danes finished on 1207, comfortably ahead of runners-up Parmiter’s on 1074, while Queen’s trailed just behind on 1060.

Brad Hughes, director of sport at Parmiter’s, said: “It’s been a positive day for us. We have had lots of kids get the opportunity to compete, that haven’t necessarily competed before and we have had a number of first places, the children are really pleased with that.

“We’ve got the county final next week so it’s a good opportunity to lead into that. It’s ideal because it means there’s an opportunity for the Year 7s and 9s to compete because there’s no formal athletics competition for them.”

In the B League, Bushey Meads’ success in the boys’ category was enough to give them the title, despite St Margaret’s beating them in the girls’ standings.

Overall Boys: 1, St Clement Danes, 630; 2, Parmiter’s, 577; 3, Aldenham, 554; 4, Queen’s, 553; 5, St Michael’s, 534; 6, Watford Boys, 507.5; 7, Bushey Meads, 496; 8, Haberdashers’, 486; 9, Bushey Academy, 403.5; 10, Francis Combe, 266.5; 11, Rickmansworth, 254.5; 12, St Joan of Arc, 253; 13, Westfield, 158; 14, St Margaret’s, 0; 15, Royal Masonic, 0.

Overall Girls: 1, St Clement Danes, 577; 2, Haberdashers’, 561; 3, Queen’s, 507; 4, Parmiter’s, 497; 5, Royal Masonic, 476; 6, St Michael’s, 470; 7, Bushey Meads, 352.5; 8, St Margaret’s, 349; 9, Bushey Academy, 306.5; 10, Rickmansworth, 274; 11, Aldenham, 228; 12, St Joan of Arc, 218; 13, Francis Combe, 165; 14, Westfield, 59; 15, Watford Boys, 0.

Overall Total: 1, St Clement Danes, 1207; 2, Parmiter’s, 1074; 3, Queens, 1060; 4, Haberdashers’, 1047; 5, St Michael’s, 1004; 6, Bushey Meads, 848.5; 7, Aldenham, 782; 8, Bushey Academy, 710; 9, Rickmansworth, 528.5; 10, Watford Boys/Girls, 507.5; 11, Royal Masonic, 476; 12, St Joan of Arc, 471; 13, Francis Combe, 431.5; 14, St Margaret’s, 349; 15, Westfield, 217.