Wednesday was a busy day for schools’ cross country this week with two major events being held at the same time. After competing in the Darlington Primary Schools cross country a few weeks ago, the top 10 from each year group went on to represent the town at the Tees Valley Cross Country Championships held, once again, at Stewart Park, Middlesbrough.
As you’d expect, several of our Junior Harriers had qualified and you’ll be pleased to hear they all performed superbly for their town, with some excellent results. Here’s a few photos of the ones we know of. There may have been more, so if you ran and you’re not here, please let us know!
Meanwhile, down the road in Preston Park, Stockton, the secondary schools competed in the first round of the English Schools Cross Country Cup. The competition is a team event where schools battle it out over 3 rounds; today was the preliminary round. Qualifying teams then progress onto the Regional Final, and then ultimately the Grand Final. Schools can enter a boys and a girls team in each of the 3 age categories – Junior, Intermediate and Senior.
Above we have the start of the Junior Boys race. Hugo Douglas-Reeves lines up for Hummersknott (maroon tops/blue vests) along with his team mates including fellow Harriers, Rowan Steel, Finn Pentland-Rice and Jacob Applyard. Points are awarded to each of the athletes depending on where they finish, with 1 point for 1st place, 2 points for second etc; points from the first 4 athletes from each team count towards the team total. So the lower the points total, the better! The boys performed admirably with Rowan the first of our boys to finish in 6th place. Hugo was just behind in 8th, with Finn finishing in 19th and Jacob in 23rd. Some great results there with the team finishing in 3rd place overall.
There were a few Harriers running in the Junior Girls race as well. The highest finisher was Lottie Graves running for Carmel College who finished in a magnificent 3rd place. Other strong runs came from Chloe Graham, 7th and Elizabeth Clay, 19th , both running for Hummersknott. There’s a bit of a query on final team standings as there’s no record of Lottie in the results which could make all the difference to where Carmel finish. Watch this space…..
Above: Lottie (40) for Carmel and Chloe (44) for Hummersknott – Junior Girls, 3rd and 7th
The only other Harrier we’re aware of was Freya Talman who represented Hummersknott in the Inter Girls. A super run from Freya, finishing in 3rd place in a time of 13:35.
You can check out the full results from the Cross Country Cup at: – http://www.schoolsathletics.net/esaa/v2/2021/xccup/xccup21results.php
Well done to all our juniors running today. There were some excellent results in both competitions and we’re sure your respective schools are delighted with your performance. We look forward to seeing more school cross country action soon!
Photos courtesy of our Harrier parents – thank you once again!