Hail the Champion!

Emily Smith wins the English schools Junior cross country race

Emily Smith won the Junior (u15s) cross-country race at Heaton Park, Manchester on Saturday March 20^th. Emily reports that she was in about 20^th position half way through the race when the other runners all started to come back to her and she managed to beat the runner up – Amy Griffiths of Leicester – by just 1 second. Emily’s time for the 3km course was 10.02 and there were 339 runners competing.

This follows on from Emily’s 2^nd place at the South-west Schools Championship last month, and is her first national title. Emily will now go on to run for English Schools team competing at the Home international match at Truro on Saturday March 27^th.

Emily follows in the footsteps of the Harrier’s Team GB Frank Tickner who won the English Schools Inter’s (u17) match back in 2000.

It looks like it was a tough and demanding course – the English Schools website shows a muddy hill being tackled by the Junior boys. The Junior Boys team was provisionally placed 3^rd overall, and the aggregate Boys winners for Countys the size of Somerset (based on school population) was Somerset.

We await confirmation of some of the results as it appears some incorrect names appear on the provisional listing*. Any photos will be added on Rogues Gallery.

WELL DONE TO ALL HARRIERS THAT COMPETED!

Finish positions as far as we know them (* note the provisional results on the official site contain some errors):

JUNIOR GIRLS

1^st Emily Smith

146^th Abigail Gibbons

254^th Jemma Jones

309^th Rebecca Carver

JUNIOR BOYS

41^st Matthew Dickinson*

58^th Oliver Fox*

241^st Matthew Cole

INTER GIRLS

306^th Jess Potter

INTER BOYS

324^th George Harris

SENIOR GIRLS

54^th Lizzie Hart

123^rd Leighanna Chappell

SENIOR BOYS

167^th John Richardson

196^th Alex Wiltshire