BUDDING young athletes from across Andover gathered at a town’s secondary school for an annual sporting festival.

The John Hanson Community School Sports Hall Athletics Festival welcomed 180 pupils to participate in morning and afternoon events including javelin, triple jump and long jump.

Energetic youngsters from Balksbury Junior School, Hatherden Primary School, Grateley Primary School, Abbotts Ann Primary School and Shipton Bellinger Primary School also took part in fun activities including the bucket throw, target throw, seated chest push, speedbounce and a vertical jump.

Children enjoyed time on each of these stations followed by a series of running relay events, with teams from Balksbury and Shipton Bellinger scooping the morning and afternoon honours respectively.

The day was run by a team of 32 John Hanson young leaders from all year groups, who took on the roles of group leader, station leader and scorer.

Alice Goodridge, who helped organise the day alongside fellow Year 10 Olympic Ambassador Kieran Masters and John Hanson’s sports co-ordinator, Helen Vant, said: “It’s great to see how rewarding the day was to them and that all the hard work paid off.”