Boys and girls teams from Elangeni School in Amersham took part in the Vale of Aylesbury AC Primary Schools Cross Country Relays event at RAF Halton near Wendover on Saturday 10th March.
The races consisted of five legs of around 1200 metres preceded by a slightly shorter first leg for Year 4 runners. Conditions were ideal with sunshine, a slight breeze and an excellent grassy surface making for some fast times. An inexperienced boys team did well to finish in 10th place out of the 19 teams competing. However, the girls team, containing three members of Chiltern Harriers, excelled in winning their race out of a field of 18.
Year 4 runner Kristin Adams took the short first leg and finished well in contention. Next Connie Lewis had a storming second leg over the regular circuit around the playing fields at Halton to bring the team into the lead. Katie Pawlyn stretched this over the third leg with a determined run, and fourth leg runner, and recent addition to the Chiltern fold, Alice Hall kept up the steady pace to bring the team into the last third of the race with a good lead.
Unfortunately, due to misunderstanding around dates, the scheduled fifth leg runner hadn't arrived so Connie Lewis gamely filled in, completing a second leg of the morning to hand over a substantial lead to fellow Chiltern Harrier, Emma Barraclough. Emma finished the job off in style recording the third fastest time of the day in 4:04, winning by fifty-one seconds from the second placed team, Wendover. Completing the team medals in third place were Stoke Mandeville. The Elangeni girls were presented with trophies for first place and Connie also won the prize for fastest lap of the day with her Leg 2 time of 4:02.
The young boys team consisting of Robert Prescott-Pounds, Huw Riddall, Fergus Browne, Jake Bulgin, Matthew Wooster and Max Elphick did well to stay in contention and all enjoyed the experience. There were several brave runs and many of the boys will still be at primary school next year so will be able to compete as stronger athletes next time. The team from Gateway School in Great Missenden were the winners of the boys' race, with Bridgewater second and Wendover third.
Headteacher at Elangeni, Mrs Jeannette Puzey, commented, 'Our runners go from strength to strength and have achieved a great deal of success this year thanks to their hard work, determination and the support of their parents. Well done to them all.'
It was the first visit of Elangeni School to this exciting and well-organised event and hopefully not the last.
Full results on Vale of Aylesbury AC website
Steve Perkin