More great results from students at the Suffolk Schools Cross Country First Round, at Royal Hospital School in Holbrook.

Due to the number of athletes, the races in the first round are split into two halves, North & West (N&W) Suffolk, and South & East (S&E) Suffolk, which then combine at subsequent dates when qualifiers are only 100 per race.

First to run in the N&W Minor Boys was Finley Weir. He paced his race perfectly, letting many go off at the start, that later slowed greatly, Finley was very strong the whole race and achieved a brilliant 6th position, which is even more impressive as the lower year.

In the N&W Junior Boys, Hayden Preston was following his recent best ever cross country race at Hainault in the Essex League, so feeling confident. He also allowed several to head off faster but kept them within a distance. After about 1.2km he had moved up to third and within striking distance. The Junior Boys use the sea wall midway through their race which is over 1km in distance, and almost impossible to pass once on it, so approaching this he put an effort in to pass both boys, and then held and extended the lead to win the qualifier by around 20 seconds.

In the same Junior Boys race Rowan Weir was also running, and like his brother also the younger year of the two. Despite this Rowan managed a perfect race to finish in 13th position, which happened to be where Hayden placed last year, so next year Rowan……

In the S&E Minor Boys Max Faulkner raced, against some strong boys that were wearing club (instead of their school) tops, Max claimed a podium position to finish a very strong 3rd place.

The Senior Boys are merged together as numbers are not to great. Sean Eales raced well on a course that he is not fond of, after having been schooling at the location for about 11 years, has no doubt run thousands of miles on it. He still fought well to come through in 11th position, and is looking forward to the next race which will suit him more.

All the boys above have qualified automatically through to the Second Round at Woodbridge in January. After this time, hopefully some, if not all will be selected for the Anglian Schools in February, which based on Thursday they all have a great chance of these champs. Then maybe after this the English Schools Champs in March.

Essex Schools Cross Country early round races start mid November at Sportspark, and athletes should enquire with their PE teachers when they go back after half term if they have not heard anything from their school by that time.