A Superb Day At The South West Schools Cross Country

On Saturday three HZG children headed off to the South West Schools Cross Country Championships in Chippenham – they had been selected to run for Somerset following their superb efforts at the Somerset County Championships.

Once in Chippenham we collected their Somerset vests and met up with their teammates.

The South West Championships sees the top 10 athletes from each of the seven counties come together to race.  Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Dorset, Gloucestershire, Avon, Wiltshire. Therefore, there were 70 children in each of the six age group race.

We walked the course and prepared for the exciting races ahead.

The racing started at 1pm with the Senior Boys age group (Year 12 and 13) – this saw an ex HZG boy racing and we enjoyed watching him run very well over what proved to be a long and very fast course.

Arthur and William were in the next Minor Boys (Year 7) race and both started well.  Again, the racing was of a very high calibre, and we were delighted that Arthur finished an incredible 4^th overall.  Both boys helped their Somerset team to finish 2^nd in the team awards, narrowly missing out to Gloucestershire by just 7 points.

Daisy’s race followed shortly after and having won the Somerset County Championships she was placed first in the county start pen – she got off to a great start and maintained this position throughout the race.  She finished a very creditable 5^th overall in the Year 8 and 9 race.

Both Arthur and Daisy were awarded certificates in the prize-giving presentations and we are very proud of this superb achievement. 

Daisy now goes on to the prestigious English Schools Championships in Kent in March – where she will again run for Somerset but this time against the top 8 runners from all counties across England – with around 400 in each of the races.  

Mrs Cobb