District Cross-Country Championships - November 11th 2009

Date: Thursday 12 November 2009

Cross-Country is enjoying a revival this term thanks to the interest and enthusiasm of Mr Jamie Clapp. This is his report on yesterday's District Championships, in which St Edmund's entered three boys' teams.

The district x-country was held at Kent College this year with teams competing from across the Canterbury district. St Edmund’s fielded strong teams in 3 of the categories: Junior Boys, Intermediate Boys and Senior Boys. After some waiting around on a chilly November afternoon, the Junior Boys were finally under starter’s orders. The boys were cheered on around the Kent College field to start a tough 3.5km route that took them through Blean Woods. Louis Glynn-Williams and George Gibbons finished well, with Louis coming in a strong seventh place.

After a brief warm up, the Intermediate Boys lined up to face two laps of the field and a lap of the woods: 4.5km in all. In this race, St Edmund’s placed very well with Alistair Noel finishing in a highly impressive 3^rd place. Supported by strong runs from Callum Stokes-Newens (13^th place), Oli Kirkness, Dom Barrett and Oscar Jackson, St Edmund’s Intermediate Boys team finished in 2^nd place overall, beaten only by Archbishop’s.

The field was small for the Senior Boys but the presence of a number of Kent runners on the start line and a daunting two full laps of both field and wood over 5km didn’t raise our spirits. However, all our runners gave gutsy performances with Jack Farrer-Newey finishing in a respectable 10^th position, Billy Bacon finishing 11^th, James Southey 13^th, and Jonny Clarke in 15^th place.

It was a great performance from every one of the St Edmund’s runners who gave their all on a cold November afternoon.