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Success for Gordon's on the Cross-Country track

On a miserable Tuesday on the first week of December, 56 of our finest cross country runners from years 7 to 11
 

 

On a miserable Tuesday on the first week of December, 56 of our finest cross country runners from years 7 to 11, both boys and girls, descended on Lightwater Country Park to compete in this year’s District Inter-Schools Team Cross-Country Championships.
 
As usual the standard of competition was extremely high with 12 of our local schools fielding some very strong teams, which included a good number of club and county athletes.
 
Last year proved to be quite a lean year for us in that we finished with just the year 8 girls trophy. This year we certainly hoped to better that.
 
Races are run in age category with the year7’s, year 8’s, year 9’s and a combined year 10/11 race. 
 
The event kicked off with the girl’s year 7 race. This is always an unknown quantity for us given that we knew nothing of the opposition. What a perfect start! First individual in, was our own Amy Dove who ran a superb race bringing in her team to finish as outright team champions. The boys put in a spirited effort but were always up against it with extremely strong opposition.
 
The year 8 girls were led by their team captain Abi White who came in as individual winner, having timed her race to perfection by overtaking the second place runner 10 metres before the finish line. At the presentation, the girls were declared as team runners-up which they accepted gracefully. However two days later, after a re-check of the results, the organising committee realised that they had mis-calculated. Our girls were in fact team winners. Although delayed, a fantastic achievement.  Once again the boys put in a sterling effort against some superb athletes.
 
The year 9’s had already set their target as they were last year’s champions as year 8’s. Sophie Dove, the team captain was certainly under pressure having to follow her sister Amy who finished first and Abi who also won her race. Sophie had a particularly hard race against a very strong local girl. The race was dominated by the two of them and Sophie pushed the pace throughout the race. Unfortunately she was narrowly beaten into second place. However this did not stop Sophie leading her team to win the team event.
 
The final races were the year 10/11 athletes. This event both boys and girls finished as runners up in their category with Matt Murphy leading our boys home and Lizzie Mosdell leading our girls. 
 
A fantastic effort by all. To win three of the four girls team events was quite an achievement and we now look forward to The Bracknell Invitation Relays as well as The Surrey Inter-District event early next year.
 
On a final note I would just like to thank Mrs. Justice for her assistance with the teams and a big thank you to the parents who braved the miserable weather to come and support.
 
Steve Monk