The North Midlands comes to Bilton Grange

North Midlands

North Midlands

This year, Bilton Grange hosted the North Midlands Cross Country Championships. Enthusiasm was high as the team of runners were looking forward to competing on their home turf in front of a strong parental and pupil support team.

The Under 11 girls competed first with Alice Bletsoe, following her win in the school competition, producing an excellent performance to lead the team around the demanding course. She eventually finished in a creditable 10th position. The other members of the team who also ran extremely well were Amelia Swaby (14th), Oceane Steward (21st), Yasmin Walilay (23rd) and Kate Broad (25th). Overall, the team achieved a great result by finishing 3rd out of 9 teams.

Next to tackle the course was the Under 11 boys who were looking to emulate the performance of the girls. The boys ran well getting into good positions in the group. Charlie Reeve ran a powerful race until his fine performance took its toll in the final straight eventually finishing in 24th place. Lukas Lakin brought the team home in 15th closely followed by Charlie Bastable in 18th. Other members of the team, Miles Porter and Andrew Carr ran well to finish 31st and 42nd respectively. The team finished 6th overall out of 10 competing schools.

The Under 13 girls ran next on a slightly longer course. They all produced excellent performances with Constance Krarup in a commanding position until being forced out of the race. This left Ellie Lewis leading the team home with a great performance to finish in 11th place. She was closely followed home by the rest of the team which consisted of Hannah Brindley (14th), Genevieve Barton (17th) and Hannah Hawkesley (25th). As a team they finished 5th out of 8.

The final race of the afternoon brought with it an air of expectation as the Under 13 boys were the reigning champions with many of the runners having already competed in this age group last year. The team started strongly with Luca Illien looking to control the race from the front. Henry Bletsoe was content to settle in behind and, as they completed the first lap of the field; he had built up a commanding lead which never looked under threat for the rest of the race. He ran out a comfortable winner of the race with a fantastic performance. Luca finished strongly in 6th place. Ben Barwell (18th) Charles Hurley (21st) and Philipp Gerstenberg (23rd) ran closely with each other throughout the race which enabled them to support each other around the course. Overall, they finished in a commendable 2nd place as a team. A great way to end a great afternoon.

Well done to all the competitors – now we look ahead to the National Prep Schools Cross Country Championships at Malvern College.

                                                                                                                        CJH


Tags: Cross-country, Prep, Sport