Cross country Races at Merchiston
Belhaven fare fantastically at Merchiston Cross-Country Races.
This week we took twenty-four pupils to Merchiston for the annual XC relay races, a welcome opportunity to run after our own S.I.S.I.C.C.C. was cancelled due to damage caused by Storm Arwen.
Merchiston XC Race 2022
The two teams of U9s ran the three 1 km legs impressively, coming in in third and fifth positions. We had three teams of U11 boys and what a show they put on. Starting out in the C-team, Charlie T. astounded us all by coming in in second position after the first lap, second only to our A-team runner Eck. On leg two Charlie J. and Rafe swapped the lead repeatedly, coming in within three seconds of each other, in the top two positions. Leg three saw Alfie of the A-team burn off the opposition to win in a near-record time, while the C-team came in third and the B-team fifth position of the fifteen teams. On the form they were running I feel I could have mixed the boys up into nearly any order and we would have won the trophy today, so dominant were we.
Next up was a new event, the U13 girls, and Hester, Eliza and Flora did us proud, coming in third position of eight teams. Eliza in particular ran very composed and comfortably.
Finally the main event, the U13 boys were up, and we started moderately, Hugo coming in tenth of 18 teams. Then a little bit of magic happened; James, despite being hamstrung, picked up four places on his 1.3 km leg and against all odds George blistered his way to second position, an incredible achievement which on its own deserved to win. George has been a truly first class runner in his time at Belhaven and there could have scarcely been a more fitting end to the efforts put in by this hard-working and talented athlete. So our teams finished 2nd and 9th of 18 teams, more than creditably.
So the day was a huge success, belonging to George and all nine U11 boys who excelled today, beating all comers with ease and rightly took home the trophy.
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