South England and National Road Relays, and Round 1 of County ESAA Cup

As well as eight athletes racing at the South of England Road Relays, then at the National Road Relays, we were also extremely excited and proud to host the first round of the ESAA Cross Country Cup in School this week.

South Of England Road Relays

Woodbridge School had eight athletes racing for their club Bury Pacers, at this event, and once again did themselves extremely proud another year in a row!

The U16 Boys team headed off, front run by Year 10’s Dex who managed to achieve the fastest leg of the day across the whole age group. This is outstanding and just illustrates how he is still among the very fastest in the country in his category. His team mates also put on strong performances landing the team a superb 6th position overall.

Year 11’s Hamish ran a year young in his age group and managed 18th in the A leg which was impressive.

Year 12’s Romilly raced in the U18s age group category up against an extremely competitive field and finished strong on the final leg putting her team in 19th position.

The U16 Girls B team made up of Year 10’s India J, India B and Ella K fought hard and remained in the top ten pack for the majority of the race, resulting in a brilliant 12th position.

Then the Girls A team made up of two of our runners, Year 9’s Chloe and Year 10’s Alexandra, had the most outstanding performance of the day where they chased in 4th to 3rd and then into first position on the final straight! A Gold medal at this event is nothing short of outstanding!

National Road Relays

Due to their success at the Southerns, our runners then hit the national stage in Birmingham the following weekend at Sutton Park. This infamous course and race – The National Road Relays – has been in play over generations for both junior and senior athletes, including the elite.

Seven Woodbridge school runners competed, and all had brilliant legs to come home in 7th for the U16 Girls A team (Year 10’s Alexandra and Year 9’s Chloe), 20th for the U16 Girls B team (Year 10’s India J, India B and Ella K) and 27th for the U18 Boys team, where Year 11’s Digby and Hamish were competing. Hamish was 6th in his leg and Digby 16th – both excellent results.

ESAA Cross Country Round 1

To top off this bright start to the season we hosted the first round of the ESAA Cup Cross Country on Tuesday 6 October, where we had five teams running across our proud course, including ‘kill hill’!

Our Junior Boys were so unlucky to miss out on qualification for the Regional Round by just one point.  This was a really strong effort displayed by this new contingent of Woodbridge School runners across Years 7 and 8 – they should all be so proud of themselves.

All our other teams have qualified for the Regionals in November, and a special mention to our Senior Boys team, where Year 12’s Charlie D and Year 13’s Sam L volunteered to run on the morning of the race to fill absences, ensuring the team’s place in the next round!

Both the Junior and Inter Girls teams won their age group and the Inter and Senior Boys were 2nd.

Huge congratulations to everyone who took part.