Runners converge on Hurst for English Schools Cross Country Cup
Last Friday, horrendous weather conditions greeted runners as they arrived for the first round of the English Schools Cross Country Cup, held at the college for the very first time.
The first race of the day was for the junior girls. In a very strong local field, Eloise A managed an excellent fourth place followed closely by Isabella H who secured tenth place. As a whole, the team finished fifth out of the 15 schools attending – narrowly missing out on a place in the regional round. Next to race were the junior boys and it was an absolute thrill to watch Alistair R D fly through the last 200m sprint to secure first place. He was closely followed by teammate William G as the boys finished second overall to qualify for the regional round.
Our inter girls all had a fantastic race, with Tallulah S leading them home to finish in an impressive fourth position. Lily S flew past a number of runners in the second half of the race to finish closely behind in sixth and Abi O’D, in her debut cross country event for the college, had an excellent run to finish eighth. Ellie M was not far behind and had a strong finish to come through in thirteenth place. The immense effort from each of our runners saw the team take the top spot overall to qualify for the regional finals.
The inter boys’ team were slightly depleted due to illness and injury however, Tom F sped round the course and extended his lead on the second lap to win the race. Dre J, Freddie H and Barney L all ran impressive races to pick up valuable points as the team finished fifth, narrowly missing out on qualification for the regionals.