Olympic sprinter takes PE at Kennet School

Marlon Devonish drops in to Kennet School

KENNET School pupils were put through their paces when an Olympic sprinter dropped in to take PE last week.

Marlon Devonish was part of the British gold medal winning 4 x 100m relay team at the 2004 games in Athens, beating the United States team by 0.01 seconds.

Last Friday the Olympian turned up at Stoney Lane to train GCSE and A Level pupils in a grueling plyometric session similar to one he would have carried out at the peak of his training.

Mr Devonish spoke about his own achievements and the importance of being resilient in everything that they did.

Kennet’s head of physical education, Alistair Tucker, said that one highlight was when Mr Devonish measured out the distance he covered in one second when at full speed and then compared this to Usain Bolt.

One pupil said “ That is insane, you could cover nearly the entire width of the sports hall in one second”

“The students went away both inspired and sweaty, PE perfection,” Mr Tucker said.

Headteacher Paul Dick said: “It was a real honour for me to welcome Marlon back to Kennet for the second time, as he had been the guest of honour at our Sports Personality of the Year event in the summer. A modest but totally inspirational man.”