English School Cross Country Championships
14 Mar
One of the last sporting events Princethorpe pupils took part in before the COVID-19 situation led to fixture cancellations was the prestigious English Schools’ Cross Country Championships 2020.
It was touch and go whether the race would actually happen and runners only received confirmation that it was going ahead on the Thursday night beforehand.
The event, which brings together the best athletes from England’s 46 counties to compete for the honour of being the best in the country, took place in the magnificent setting of Liverpool’s Sefton Park on Saturday 14 March.
Six Princethorpe runners had been selected to be part of a 48-strong Warwickshire squad, with the top eight runners from each age group representing their county on the day. Ava Farren Year 8, Kate Pomerleau, Year 8 and Grace Darcy, Year 9 in the Junior Girls (Under 15) category, Zak Johnson, Year 9 in the Junior Boys (Under 15) category and Tom and Will Crowfoot, Lower Sixth in the Senior Boys (Under 19) category.
Our hard-working runners had put in extensive training throughout the season in the build up to this pinnacle of the cross country season. In muddy and challenging conditions the Junior Girls ran a 3km course, the Junior Boys a 4.4km course and the Senior Boys a 6.7km course around the 235-acre park.
The start of each race was particularly spectacular, with each county’s eight runners lining up in their pens in the order in which they qualified. The ground literally shook at the start of every race as around 350 runners took off en masse.
At the end of a long and tiring day the final results were as follows:
In the Junior Girls out of a field of 344 runners, Kate Pomerleau came in 112th with a time of 12.26, Ava Farren was 215th with a time of 12.48 and Grace Darcy came in 292nd in 13.18. Kate, Ava and Grace were placed 1st, 2nd and 6th for Warwickshire.
In the Junior Boys out of a field of 334 runners, Zak Johnson came in 315th in a time of 17.54, he was placed 6th for Warwickshire.
In the Senior Boys out of a field of 324 runners, 16 year-old Will Crowfoot came in 248th in a time of 24.59 and his twin brother Tom came in 276th in 25.38, they were placed 2nd and 3rd respectively for Warwickshire.
Against stiff opposition overall Warwickshire were placed 41st in the Junior Girls Competition, 36th in the Junior Boys Competition and 41st in the Senior Boys Competition.
Will Bower, Head of Outdoor Education, commented, “Our runners did fantastically well to qualify for this prestigious event and performed very well on the day against very stiff competition. They all did the College and the county proud.”
Congratulations to all our runners and many thanks to their dedicated parents for their support during the season and taking them up to Liverpool for the Championships.