TALK about a contrast in conditions – this week’s County School’s Cross

Country Championships dealt out hard ground-frost and flurries of snow.

Gemma Holloway won the senior girl’s race in imperious fashion and can

look forward to a tough race in this weeks Southern Championship with

some confidence.

Other athletes with top-ten finishes were Hayley Instance in the junior

girls where she was 5th. In this race, for the first time this season,

Hayley was up against girls a year older … it’s the way school

age-groups work.

It was good to see Amber Pullinger finish 8th – thus gaining a very

well deserved County call up.

In the junior boys race, involving runners from years 8 and 9 Jack

Exley was 6th – probably the best run of the season – and also earning

a County call up. He was backed by an excellent team which included

Theo Adesina 11th, Tayler Newell 15th, Sarab Dhillon 22nd, Reece Scott

26th and Ben Prior 38th. They probably did well in the team results

which were not available at the time of going to press.

Sam Smith pulled out a great run to finish 10th in the intermediate

boys age group. Jodie Meredith was 12th in that race and Tyler Chu 38th.

Brooke Mensah was 32nd in the middle girls event, where Gemma

Archer-Haley, a William Edwards pupil, was 12th.

In the junior girls race Heather Peters was 28th and Lucie Ball 34th.

This week the younger athletes tackle the Southern Championships at

Stanmer Park, Brighton. The under 13 and under 15 boys teams are strong

as are the under 13 girls.