CROSS COUNTRY AT RHS

Suffolk Schools Qualifying Race
On a glorious sunny day at RHS, team Woodbridge arrived with 34 boys and 33 girls all in the Woodbridge vests ready to compete against the other 1700 children from 52 schools who had ventured out with a common desire of finishing in the top 50 to earn a place in the next Suffolk Qualifier.

The afternoon started with over one hundred competing in two senior races: in the girls’ event Amy and Sarah ran extremely well to finish in 4^th and 7^th respectively, while for the boys Nathan finished 2^nd and Alex 4^th, all four running with great control, taking their time to work through the field and finish in the top 10. Chris was not far behind, also finishing strongly to end in a well-deserved 16^th position.

Racing next and suitably inspired, the minor girls and boys put in some outstanding runs of their own: Eloise 3^rd, Rose 4^th and Lara 10^th (Rose and Lara both a year under age!); Sasha and Georgina 19^th and 22^nd; Millie a fantastic 29^th, much to her own surprise!; Sophia showed incredible fighting spirit to finish 37^th despite a big fall requiring first aid after the finish; Nancy A who must be thanked for helping poor Sophia came in a strong 69^th, with Nancy N just on her tail 72^nd. Phoebe and Bea both finished the race strong in 96^th and 112 respectively.  The minor boys also excelled with Ethan and James both finishing in the top 10 (8^th and 9^th) and Jonjo close behind in 16^th. John, Jack and Will ran in a nice little pack at the front of the race, ensuring qualification for the next round in positions 23^rd, 24^th and 36^th, while Arthur, Oscar and Oliver joined them in the top half of the race (65^th, 69^th, 75^th). There were about 700 minors competing overall to give an indication of how well ours did.

The Junior girls saw Ruby 1^st  and Amy 4^th finish in the top 10, with Ruby running away with the race by an astonishing margin. Anna made another top 20 finish with 14^th and Isobel and Ella made the top 50 in 22^nd and 47^th. Libbie came in 57^th and with Kitty 71^st , Madeline 86^th, Wilhelmina 95^th and Iris 96^th all breaking the top 100 it was an excellent performance of group running.  The junior boys performed well, too.  Henry was in excellent form finishing a strong 3^rd with Ed just behind him in 11^th. Jonny proved that running is definitely in the family with an impressive 22^nd and with Moses finishing in 41^st Woodbridge will have a solid number of representatives in the next round. Ronald was unlucky to just miss out on his place finishing 51^st, whilst Senen in his first race finished a creditable 82^nd. Samuel finished well in 116^th, and Edward came 131^st despite becoming ill while running (Tom 126^th and George 124^th helped him around the course and supported him through the finish – great teamwork).  Once again all our runners were in the top half of their races, with 600 juniors competing on the day.

The Inter girls saw the second winner of the day for Woodbridge as April strode around confidently and made it to the finish line a good 50m in front of her nearest rival. Jess ran better than ever to finish an excellent 7^th and even surprising herself; Bea 10^th continued where she left off last season with another excellent performance whilst Charlotte 16^th, Emily 23^rd and Ashleigh 25^th ran strong races to confirm their places in the next round of the Suffolk trials.  The Inter boys rose to the challenge equally well: Charlie 2^nd was closely followed by Kit 3^rd and George 6^th, all three finishing effortlessly; and Tom 18^th and Barnaby 22^nd worked hard together to ensure a top 25 position in what was Barnaby’s first race for school.  300 athletes competed at Inter.

All in all it was a fantastic day of running, with lots of positive improvement and some outstanding performances.  Overall out of 65 runners 38 have so far made it through to the next round with a few more potentially joining them.  The school also had a record 18 top 10 finishes this year and all should be congratulated for the hard work and dedication that it takes to perform at this level.  As a school we won both inter categories and were second in both junior categories (but first combined); the minors had no team event, but judging by the results would have been top three or better, and would almost certainly have won the girls’ event.

The next round of the Suffolk qualifiers takes place at Ipswich High on Saturday 1^st December so we will hopefully have even more positive news then.