Cross Country Championships – March 2023
On Saturday 18 March, five Woodbridge School athletes were part of a successful Suffolk Team that competed at the English Schools Cross Country Championships at Wollaton Park in Nottingham, the most competitive nationals of the winter. English Schools is an event where athletes create memories, experience success and learn to deal with disappointment on the highest stage!
It’s incredibly challenging to give this race the context it deserves as all 46 counties in England enter just their top eight athletes – so the event hosts 368 of the fastest athletes from across England with previous winners including Sir Mo Farah and Paula Radcliffe.
Suffolk is a tiny county with regards to population (category C, with D being the smallest) and yet, once again, the athletes punched well above their weight. Athletes took part in the following categories: Juniors (Year 8 and 9), Inters (Year 10 and 11) and Seniors (Year 12 and 13).
Our full Suffolk team results are below and can also be found here
Remembering these placings are out of 46 counties taking part, that’s some achievement for Woodbridge athletes!
Junior Girls – 16th
Year 8’s Romilly was the third of the Suffolk runners to finish taking 98th place, and Year 8’s Felicity was the fifth of the Suffolk runners to finish in 163rd place – remembering that is from a national field of 368 so it’s quite some achievement!
To give the depth some context the girls were only 24 seconds apart after almost 14 minutes of racing and yet 65 places apart. Both girls compete in the same age group next year – amazing performance and great reward for all their commitment through the season.
Junior Boys – 7th
An astounding achievement for our Junior Boys runners.
Inter Girls – 11th
Year 10’s Phoebe was the fifth Suffolk runner to finish, taking 156th place, so comfortably in the top half, and in her first ever English cross country season – she will race in the same age group next year.
Inter Boys – 8th
Yet another outstanding team result!
Senior Girls – 22nd
Still comfortably top half of the counties, Year 13’s Amy enjoyed her last ever school cross country with another strong performance to finish second Suffolk in 128th. Amy has not missed a single event in her final school season!
Senior Boys – 8th
To round off the day the Senior Boys were on the podium taking the Inter County Trophy for the first county outside the top three to close all eight athletes! (The best 8th runner finisher).
Year 12’s Henry was the first Suffolk runner to finish, taking 16th place. Henry gets to race in the same age group next year and this rounds off a spectacular winter where he took gold in the English National and bronze and team gold in the UK Inter Counties. Three national events in four weeks!
And so this sees the end of a busy and successful winter, and time for our athletes to rest and recharge before starting to prepare for the summer track season. Well done to everyone that took part, and a massive thank you to all parents and staff who have travelled far and wide to support our young athletes.
