King Henry VIII Cross Country Relay Competition 2019

For the second time the School entered the King Henry Relay, a competition that is over thirty years old but was this year in a new format and bigger than ever.  It meant we could merge all year groups to create two boys’ teams and two girls’ teams.

The competition itself sees the boys’ teams complete 6 legs and girls’ 4 legs each of 2.53 miles, with batons exchanged as in a track relay.  The boys’ race had 60 teams (A and B teams) competing this year in the largest ever field.  Our A team was ably led out by Nathan, completing his leg in under the magical 12 minutes.  Kit then continued his excellent recent form to keep the team within touching distance of a top 10 finish; then Charlie and George worked hard in the middle stages of the race, handing to Henry still in 9^th position.  Henry and Alex gave their all to retain the position, and nearly managed it, just being pipped to the post, finishing and excellent 12^th.  The B team did remarkably well with Chris, Tom and Johnny breaking the 15 minute barrier and Ethan, Edward and Sam just outside, to earn 46^th overall and 8^th out of 18 in the B team standings.

The girls’ race is 20 years old this year and had the most entries ever at 38 teams. Ours performed fantastically and finished in 5^th place, having even led at one stage! April went first to produce an excellent run of 13m 29 seconds (eighth fastest female on the day, and 35^th fastest all time).  Ruby… was extraordinary: she ran the fastest female time of the day at 13m 01s – and this as a Year 8 amongst seniors – and the fifth fastest time ever over the 20 years of the race! Sarah and Jess then fought tenaciously to secure an outstanding 5^th place overall.  Our very young B team were not to be outshone: 7^th out of 13 B teams and 27^th overall. Bea charged out of the starting area for a 15 minute opening lap; Anna, Eloise and Issy (finishing strongly to steal a few more places) carried on the fine work.