u11 X-C @LTS

 Monday 9/3/09

Two teams of U11 pupils, 7girls and 8 boys, took part in this event on a bright, sunny afternoon down in the Borders.

Eight schools had entered teams for the girls’ race and about 70 runners lined up at the start. After half a mile or so of open-field running which saw Sophie up in the lead, closely followed by Emilia in second place and the other Belhaven runners settling in the top dozen places, all the competitors disappeared into the woods (such is the glorious uncertainty of X-Country running)…to re-emerge some time later with Sophie still in first and Emilia chasing hard to finish 2nd. Not far behind the other five girls ran a very strong, tight team race, finishing as follows: Grizel 5th, Amelia 6th, Jeanie 7th, Abi 12th and Cassia 13th, all of which gave us a total of 33 points,(the first six runners score) easily gaining 1st place in the team competition to retain the shield. So well done Girls!

For the second race of the afternoon, nine teams, about 70 runners in all, lined up for the start of the boys’ event. The boys were quietly confident but who knows, a muddy patch here and a lost shoe there could make all the difference!
Again, the first half-mile was run at breakneck speed and stretched out the field, Jamie settling into the top five followed by Ollie, Will, George and Wills who seemed comfortable in about 12th place, Sam, Hughie and Geordie not too far behind: all of our contingent making very good progress at that stage.
Off they went into the woods…and when the leaders re-appeared, things were looking very good indeed: Jamie was now in the lead and finishing strongly to win; Ollie ran hard to claim 6th in the final straight, closely followed by George in 7th , a short way ahead of Will in 9th , and Wills in 13th; Sam sprinted hard to clinch 17th spot in the last few yards before the funnels! Not too long after, Hughie came in 26th and Geordie placed 30th.
Once again, the first 6 runners’ score were added up and we had scored 53 points…Would that be enough to retain the shield?
Sadly, not quite enough as Berwick Middle School had managed 52 points !!! Still, second place out of nine is not bad!
All in all, it was a tremendous afternoon’s running, everyone doing their very best on the day. So,very well done to all the runners involved.