Cross-Country Success

Several pupils from the College recently competed in the Shropshire Schools Cross-Country Championships held in Oswestry. Skye Higgin, (14) came 8th in the Year 8&9 Girls; and in the Year 8&9 Boys: Stephen Bannister, came 8th and Matthew Burrows, (12) came 11th. In the Year 7 Girls: Harriet Ballantyne, (11), came 18th and in Year 7 Boys, Tim Courage, 12 years old was 18th.

Because of their results Skye and Stephen were selected to run for Shropshire Schools in an Inter Counties race in Cheshire against three other counties. Racing with them was another Ellesmere College pupil Oliver Blake. Again all did so well that they have been selected to run in the English Schools Championships in Brighton on March 8th. This is the top schools race in the country with schools from every county being represented.

Oliver Blake has already had a very successful year. In January he ran in the County Championships in Telford and won the U15 race. This meant he was selected to run in the UK championships in Nottingham in February. This event was also the final of a series of races that he has been doing for the last 4 months called the “Reebok Cross Challenge”. This is UK athletics major national cross-county series and competitors have to select which events they run. Oliver ran in Liverpool, Birmingham, Margate, Edinburgh and also the final in Nottingham. When all his results were totalled up he was ranked 11th in the UK.

Last weekend he also ran in the English National Championship held at Parliament Hill in London. He finished the hilly and boggy 5km course in 17th position out of 280.

Nick Blake who coaches the cross-country runner said “We have some really talented runners at the school. Combine this with the dedication and determination and you end up with the results we are seeing. They all work incredibly hard and fully deserve this success”

3rd March 2003  Back to News