Silver Medal and a Top Five Finish at UK Inter County Cross Country

On Saturday 8 March, 12 Woodbridge School athletes were included in the Suffolk team to compete at the UK Inter County Cross Country at Wollaton Park in Nottingham. The UK Inter County event is one of the most competitive in the country, with Area teams from Scotland and Wales competing against 45 County teams from England, almost giving the day a Home Nation International flavour.

At Senior and U20 level, the event also serves as a selection race for the World Cross Country Championships. Worlds are only held every two years and there is no championship in 2025.

Our athletes had a phenomenal day with three outstanding results to highlight.

Suffolk U20 Men won team silver against the very best the UK had to offer. The Suffolk scoring team included our own Year 13’s Iwan providing a very special reward for Iwan’s final cross country season at Woodbridge School. Just as special and worthy of a mention is the fact that all four of the Suffolk scoring team train together at Woodbridge School most Saturday mornings for exactly this reason – to raise the standard to compete with the very best.

The best individual result of the day came in the U13 Boys where Year 8’s Dexter finished an amazing 5th place, just nine seconds behind the winner over 3km – That’s 5th fastest in all of the UK! As far as we are aware only two Woodbridge School athletes have ever finished higher and both of those athletes went on to represent either English Schools or Great Britain.

Suffolk’s second best team result on the day was in the U13 Girls with a 9th place finish. What is unique with this result is that all four Suffolk scorers were Woodbridge School athletes. Our top two athletes had identical times in 28th and 30th, but such is the level of competition that they were only four seconds from 20th!

Here is a full summary of the Woodbridge School athletes (context being up to 350 athletes in each race, all good enough to be representing their county):

U13 Girls: Suffolk Team 9th:

28th – India J (Year 8)
30th – Chloe (year 7) – a brilliant run as a lower year!
39th – Alexandra (Year 8)
86th – Ella (Year 8)
222nd – Imogen (Year 8)

U13 Boys: Suffolk Team 14th:

5th Dexter (Year 8)

U15 Girls: Suffolk Team 21st:

73rd – Romilly (Year 10)
201st – Alice (Year 9)

U15 Boys: Suffolk Team 35th:

112th Digby (Year 9)
261st Hamish (Year 9)

U17 Men: Suffolk Team 15th:

97th – Angus Blackburn (Year 12)

U20 Men – Suffolk Team 2nd – Silver Medal:

53rd – Iwan (Year 13)

Congratulations to every athlete earning the right to compete at this event and a massive thank you to all the parents travelling up for the weekend in support.

Good luck to those athletes representing Suffolk Schools at English Schools in Sussex this coming weekend. The final race of the winter!