Qualifications at Suffolk Cross Country County Championships – Jan 2026

In the freezing conditions of Sunday just gone, our athletes (having long trained for this event, and through the Christmas holidays too!) took to the start line in their various age groups at the Suffolk Cross Country County Championships at Holbecks Park in Hadleigh – one of the first main races of the 2026 calendar.  

Runners across the country in the same week, would be competing in their local county race, and those U13 upwards compete for the top 6-8 finishes in their age group, hoping for county selection to run at the prestigious UK Inter Counties Cross Country, which is once again at the infamous course at Wollaton Park in Nottingham on 7 March. 

U11s

TheU11 Girls and Boys kicked off the day, attacking the frozen conditions with their usual resilience.  Woodbridge School had one girl and three boys competing – and all four came home in the top 10 with a Gold medal in tow for Ava! Huge congratulations to this young, tenacious team of Year 6 students: 

U11 Girls: 

• Ava – 1^st place  

U11 Boys: 

• Charlie – 4^th place 
• Archie – 7^th place 
• Sam – 9^th place 

U13s 

Running for her club, Year 8’s Chloe Berry achieved another gold for her club in the U13 category with a whopping lead of just under a minute clear of second place. Year 7’s Florence was also an impressive 7th girl in the same age group!  

Year 8’s Oliver L came home in a superb second place achieving a Silver medal, four seconds shy of the leader. This is such a significant improvement and testament to his relentless hunger to do well and training in the last four months. 

U15 Girls 

The U15 Girls kicked off the longer of the courses run on the day and in the face of much adversity they prevailed once again in the true Kenyan style formation: 

• Year 9’s India J – 3^rd place 
• Year 9’s Ella – 4^th place 
• Year 8’s Alexandra – 6^th place  

All securing qualification for their Suffolk county team in March.

U15 Boys 

Our U15 Boys followed promptly afterwards and powered home: 

• Year 9’s Dex – 1^st place 
• Year 10’s Hamish – 3rd place 
• Year 10’s Digby –6^th place 
• Year 9’s Josh – 10^th place 

Again, the top six from this race will all qualify to run for Suffolk.

U17s Women 

The U17 Women’s category is another strong one and Year 11’s Romilly powered home in 3rd place securing a Bronze medal for her club Bury Pacers.  She also goes through to the Inter Counties.   

U20s Men 

Our final athlete, Year 13’s Angus had the absolute race of his season so far and showing no signs of letting up, crossed the finish line in a brilliant 2nd place.  His true grit was obvious from early on and through gritted teeth, to fend off a competitor attempting to close in on his hard earned position, he managed to cover the last 100m in a super speedy 13 seconds!  Well done Angus for such a great achievement! 

Finally, huge congratulations for all our runners who got out there on Sunday – the terrain was tough, the conditions were brutal but once again Woodbridge School students’ running tenacity prevailed.   

Good luck to all our qualifiers representing Suffolk in March. Such a proud moment to be able to run for your county!