English Schools Cross Country Championships

The latest edition of the English Schools Cross Country Champs took place at a sunny Sefton Park, Liverpool on Saturday. As with the National Inter Counties the week before there was good representation from Chiltern athletes running for Buckinghamshire Schools or Hertfordshire Schools teams. Fifteen took part. Each of the six races features around 340 of the strongest school-age athletes in England across around 45 counties.

Intermediate Girls
The first race on the programme saw the Intermediate Girls tackle a 3.8k route round the gently undulating park, which was mostly in good shape, except for some challenging sticky mud sections. Maya Davis had a good run to round off her season, finishing fourth Bucks Schools scorer in 99th place. Megan Lockwood was sixth Bucks scorer in 255th. For Herts Schools Alex Whitfield was third scorer in 105th place. The Bucks Schools team was 14th, Herts Schools 18th.
 
Junior Boys
Harrison Lawrence was part of a very successful Bucks team that combined its six scorers to finish an excellent third. On a fairly short 3.2k course, Harris was fourth scorer in 67th and the Bucks team also featured the individual winner in Luis Da Silva and sixth placed Luca Dolan. They will run for England at the SIAB International in Bangor, north Wales next Saturday.
 
Junior Girls
There were three Chiltern girls scoring in the Bucks Schools Junior Girls team that ran the same route as the Junior Boys – second scorer Nell Frost in 62nd, third scorer Juliette MacDougall 67th and sixth scorer Aura Lue Fong 247th.
 
Intermediate Boys
The best individual Chiltern performance of the day came from Tom Ford, who ran with great calm and purpose on the Inter Boys 5k circuit to win the silver medal and book his place running for England Schools at Bangor. It will be Tom’s second vest having run for the country two years ago. Tom’s Herts Schools team was sixth.
 
Senior Girls
On a 4.4k route, Alice Peckham, fifth scorer in 133rd, and Lucinda McRonald, sixth scorer in 169th, were part of the Bucks Schools team that were 19th. Emily Ford had a good run to be third Herts scorer in 101st.
 
Senior Boys
Four Chiltern senior boys ran on a fast but taxing 6.3k course - Edward Johnson had a good run to be first Bucks Schools scorer in 50th, Alex Hughes was second scorer in 102nd, Callum Powell was fifth scorer in 172nd, and Jack Turner was 289th.