Saucony English National Cross Country Championship

Our cross country athletes close the season with three National Cross Country Fixtures – Competition at the highest level.

The Saucony English National Cross Country Championship – Entry through your club and the largest event with over 8000 athletes competing in 10 Age Group races.

British Athletics Inter-Counties Cross Country Championships where our students selected will represent Suffolk County ( Loughborough on Saturday 11 March)

New Balance English Schools Cross Country Championships where our students selected will represent Suffolk Schools (Norwich on Saturday 18 March)

Last weekend, Saturday 25 February,  a group of seven travelled to Nottingham to compete for Ipswich Harriers in the first of the three Nationals with some fantastic performances.

To give the results some context, junior races typically have 400 to 500 of the fastest cross country athletes in England competing. If you consider that in team sports an England Squad is typically around 30 strong before the final match day side is selected, in cross country it is widely recognised that top 100 takes some doing and top 50 is knocking on the door of National Standard.

Our individual results were as follows:

U13 Boys –

Charlie Turner – 38th – a fantastic second half saw Charlie storm his way into the top 50 pacing his race perfectly
George Wharam – 58th – again a powerful finish saw George closing in on that top 50
Kit Evans-Lombe – 118th – A first National event for Kit and not far away from that top 100. Such is the level of competition in fact that Kit was only 6 seconds behind 100th.

The boys helped Ipswich Harriers to 6th place in the team competition against the very best clubs from around England.

U13 Girls –

Amy Goddard – 215th from 467 finishers. A first National for Amy and she was our only athlete on the day running a year up. 48 seconds between 100th and 215th shows the depth.

U15 Girls –

Sarah Barker – 42nd – an outstanding run saw Sarah power through to finish first for her club as well as break into that top 50 on a National stage for the first time.

Amy Graham – 136th – closing in on that elusive top 100, just 15 seconds ahead. A good return to form for Amy.

Amy and Sarah helped Ipswich Harriers to an incredible 4th place at the Nationals. The Clubs best result of the day!

U15 Boys –

Nathan Goddard – 18th –  A top 20 finish at Nationals !

Nathan’s highest ever finish at a National Cross Country fixture and just a tantalising 9 seconds from top 10. Another mature performance moving from 26th to 18th in the final 500 metres.

Congratulations to everyone that competed and we wish you well for the remaining fixtures.