ESAA Cross Country Cup Regional Final
Mount St. Mary’s School Playing Fields – Spinkhill, Sheffield
Saturday 11th November 2017
The English Schools Athletics Association ‘Cross Country Cup’ is an annual team competition for young athletes aged between 12 years and 16 years of age. It is open to both boys and girls who represent their schools in two age categories. Junior boys and girls who must be aged at least 12 years but under14 and intermediate boys and girls aged at least 14 but under16 years of age. It is a national competition and the opening round sees all the entrants competing in their local area with the highest placed teams going forward to compete in the regional final which was held on Saturday the 11th of November on the playing fields at St Mary’s School in Spinkhill, Sheffield. The top three teams in each of the day’s races would go forward to contest the grand final which will be held on the 25th of November at the Sevenoaks School in Kent. No schools from Hull or the East Riding of Yorkshire qualified for the final.
Eight of Kingston upon Hull AC’s junior athletes competed for the South Hunsley School and 6th form College at the regional final.
Tom Smales put in another quality performance in the intermediate boys race where he ran in a field of 59 athletes and covered the course in a time of 15:23 sec crossing the finish line in 8th place. He has made great progress throughout this year and has maintained a high level of consistency whether on the track or on a cross country course. His effort in this race helped the team to achieve a 5th place finish.
Four Kingston athletes were in action in the intermediate girl’s race which was contested by 60 runners. Hermione Pickering was the first member of the team to finish, running the course in a time of 11:17 sec to cross the line in most creditable 15th place. She has only been training at Costello for the past few months and made her club debut in a UK Youth Development League fixture in July. Emilia Russell was the second Kingston athlete to finish and she crossed the line in 27th place and ran a time of 11:53 sec, she is a good all round athlete who is adept in runs, jumps and throws. Lucy Good was the third member of the team and she ran the course in 12:46 sec for 42nd place and Pippa Gouldson’s run of 12:56 sec saw her come home in 46th place with the team finishing in 8th place overall.
Four more Kingston athletes were among the 61 runners who were in action in the junior girls race, the first to finish was Jess Waugh who put an impressive run together to finish in 14th place and clock a time of 10:08 sec and the next team member home was Meabh Brannigan who also put in a good effort to cross the line in 26th position in 10:31 sec, both Jess and Meabh made their junior team debuts this year in the UK Youth Development League with the Kingston junior team, the next girl over the finish line was Anya Beetham who ran the course in a time of 11:19 sec to take 46th place and just a second behind her in 47th was Georgina North who has been training with Kingston for just a few weeks. The team finished in 9th position.