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| Left - Girls Race Start: Centre - Connie Lewis wins fastest lap: Right - Elangeni Boys win Gold |
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| Left - Girls Race Start: Centre - Connie Lewis wins fastest lap: Right - Elangeni Boys win Gold |
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Click on photos to enlarge - use browser back button to return |
Several young Chiltern athletes were at RAF Halton on Saturday competing in Aylesbury's annual primary schools cross country relay event for their schools - Elangeni and Chalfont St Peter.
There is one race for girls and one for boys, each team requiring children from Years 4, 5 and 6, the first short leg specifically for Year 4 children. Each of the subsequent five1200 metre legs involves a long, slow climb and a flat and downhill finish. In cool, blustery conditions this made for challenging racing.
The girls race saw Chalfont St Peter's Claire Buttivant come home leading the 21 teams and taking the fastest lap prize for the first leg. Not far behind in third was Elangeni's Sophia Lingley. Elangeni's Katie Pawlyn put in a great second leg of 4.10 to give Elangeni the lead which they were to hold for the remainder of the race. Alice Hall, Rosalind Firth, Hannah Shepard and Connie Lewis all ran well paced legs from the front, Connie winning the prize for fastest lap of the day in 3.50, holding off last leg challenges from Orie Amadi of Wendover and Claudia McInerney of Chalfont St Peter, both recording 3.55.
Wendover were second team and Chalfont St Peter third. Elangeni's B team also performed well, finishing fifth, with Katie Jakeman recording the race's fastest third leg in 4.16.
Chalfont St Peter were favourites for the boys race with Chiltern League winner Andrew Stenning on the last lap, but again it was Elangeni that won. Again Chalfont St Peter ended the first leg leading the 23 teams, Jonathon Stenning winning the fastest first leg prize. However, Bill Hughes's storming second leg of 3.38 (fastest lap of the day) gave Elangeni a fifteen second buffer that they managed to extend to twenty-four by the finish.
Elangeni's remaining runners - Huw Riddall, Will Perkin, Joseph Aherne and Robert Hughes all ran excellently paced legs - Robert achieving the second fastest leg of the day in 3.39 with Chalfont's Andrew Stenning third fastest in 3.45. Chalfont St Peter with Toby Jones and Sam Butcher running fourth and fifth legs, were second team, followed by Wendover in third.
Steve Perkin