Sporting challenges took centre stage as students past and present were honoured at an Olympics-themed school presentation evening.

 

Students' academic and artistic excellence was also recognised at Emmanuel College's annual prizegiving, held at The Sage Gateshead.

 

Under the title of Competing for the Prize and with a rousing tribute to The Queen, Principal Jonathan Winch said the event was about celebrating achievements, enjoying the talents of "our amazing student body" and being inspired.

 

Two star cyclists, Kyle and Jessica Watts, were among the first on stage, but then the brother and sister were sent off on a challenge to find out how far they could ride by the end of the two-hour event.

 

Tracked by GPS, they reached Corbridge, more than 20 miles away well before the final hymn as failing light and atrocious weather conditions stopped play. But the distance was nothing for Kyle who can cover ten miles in just over 23 minutes.

 

He came sixth in the National Championships recently, while Jessica won her age group nationally and has already had a flavour of London 2012 after racing at the Olympic Velodrome in the UK School Games.

 

Kyle was also recognised as inaugural boys' winner of a new cycling challenge at Emmanuel College in memory of Michael Lloyd, a keen mountain biker who died of meningococcal meningitis in April last year aged just 15.

 

Kyle, who was a friend of Michael's, said: "It was tough. The event was held on Michael's birthday and he would have loved to have been there. It was a great honour to receive the Lloyd Medal from his mum and dad."

 

The sporting achievement of Emmanuel old boy Ben Cattanach was also celebrated.

Ben left Emmanuel as head boy in 2000 and recently led his team, Dunston UTS, onto the pitch at Wembley for the FA Vase Final against West Auckland Town, which Dunston won 2-0 in front of more than 5,000 people.

 

Cattanach, 30, told the audience of students, parents, staff and invited guests: "It was very much a team performance. We were the underdogs and got the result based on team spirit.

 

"As captain it was my job to give confidence to the younger players in the team and to help them believe they could do it."

 

The former student was then tested in a game of keepy-uppy with current head boy Jack Collier, who hosted the prizegiving with head girl Jessica Leighton.

 

Embracing Emmanuel's technology college status, the hosts used iPads to lead the programme of entertainment which included highlights from the school production of Wind in the Willows, guitarists Ryan Musgrove and Elliot Chaplin, the college orchestra and ensemble, One Voice choir and dance group.

 

The guest speaker was Doctor Sasa, from Burma, who told the audience about the plight of his people in Chin state and his battle to save thousands of villagers from disease, starvation and persecution from the military regime.

 

Dr Sasa managed to secure an education after walking for weeks through snake and leech infested jungles to reach India and later Armenia to study and qualify as a doctor.

 

Despite threats against his own life, he went on to teach hundreds of health workers, build training centres and dormitories, saving countless lives.

 

Driven by his Christian faith, he said: "I did not believe in surrendering or giving up on my vision. I knew I had to help my people. People can take everything from you but they can't take your vision."

 

Dr Sasa told the students: "Please do not stop running when it gets harder; don't surrender to difficulties. It's you and your vision that can bring hope and change."

 

After the presentation of academic, music, drama, sport and special awards, Mr Winch announced the winner of the top prize, The Vardy Award for Excellence, to  Frederick Potts, who combines being top of his year group with wit and charm, sword fencing, chess, playing the piano, helping in the library and working out in the gym.

 

 

The prize winners were:

 

Awards for Excellence: Keir Nyambega, Dawid Adamowicz, William McLeod, Sophie Phillips, Olivia Moran, Tilly Softly, Anna Spence, Olivia Cossey, Hal Robinson, Matthew Fairhurst, Cameron Barker, Sarah Burgess, Frederick Potts.

 

Awards for Endeavour: Kieron Smith, Matthew Bratton, Eve Cummings, Sophie Mitchinson, Zoe Forster, Mohammed Hussain, Jessica Snowdon, James Aitken, Andrew Coffell, Andrew Hey, Georgina Nicholson, Joanne Dixon, Daniel Bate.

 

ECAS Level 1 Excellence Award: Josh Steer, Bethany Hewitson.

Music Scholarships: Charlotte Bainbridge, Oluseyi Adeniyi, Declan Southern.

Dramatic Performance of the Year: Emma Anderson, Lauren Ball.

Outstanding Contribution to Drama: Matthew Tuckey.

 

Sports Awards:

Victor Ludorum: Alex Boyle, Adam Sewell, Stephen Creed, Fibon Nyadu.

Victrix Ludorum: Jessica Morgan, Louise Griffiths, Amy Fuller, Rachael Lally.

Senior Rugby Player of the Year: Steven Crass

Hockey Player of the Year: Emily Graham (junior), Jenny Young (senior)

The Boath Minute Cup: Fibon Nyadu, Rachel Ward

The Lloyd Medal: Kyle Watts, Bethan Thomas

Sportswoman of the Year: Cailin Grant

Sportsman of the Year: Conner Anderson

 

The Waterstone's Spelling Awards: Alicia Reed, James Cummins, Matthew Fairhurst.

The Waterstone's Spelling Plate: Georgina Middlemiss

Millennium Senior Curriculum Award: Lucy Richardson

Junior College Curriculum Award: Bronwyn Riani

Junior College Public Speaking Award: Wenqian Zeng

The Wesley Owen Award for Biblical Studies: Rachel Fairhurst

The Derek Esp Technology Prize Lecture: Daniel Hand

The Sokkia Trophy for Business Education: Daniel Bate

The David Williams Award for Excellence in the Written Word: Andrew Cooper

The Bonas Award for German and Technology: Daniel Huddart

The Clough Award for Excellence in Electronics: Jacob Armstrong

The Albert Dicken Award for Economics: Mustafa Aslam

The Emmanuel College Alumni Association Prize: Hayley Robertson

 

Major Awards:

The Principal's Special Award: Ryan Metcalf, Andrew McTeer, Christopher Miller

The Chairman's Short Story Award: Lauren Johnson

The John Laing Community Service Trophy: Adam Herczeg

The Albert Dicken Award for Business Studies: Amy Jaremko

The Onyx Cup for Technology: Kyle Watts

 

Premier Awards:

The Wiecek Cup: Elliott Linton

The Derek Tams Award: Andrew Wells

The Harlie Gilbertson Endeavour Award: Rebecca Lavin

The Vardy Award for Excellence: Frederick Potts

The House Cup: Galatians