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Jan 25th 2003 It was a Saturday morning, like any other for most, but while many were still fast asleep in their beds eleven Cheslyn Hay Primary School pupils, six parents and Miss Ward gathered together for the first race on the Cross Country calender. It was to prove to be a very exciting occasion. The race was held at Springdale Primary School Wolverhampton. The actual race was run over the park and it surrounding area to the rear of the school grounds and was said to be just under a mile, although we didn’t actually measure it ourselves!! The conditions were fairly good, it had rained a little earlier in the morning but stopped in time for the races, this meant that the ground was soft but not too muddy! 11 pupils took part (5 girls & 6 boys from years 3-6) they were: Robert Wilkinson 4C Sam Wright 4W Matthew Kingston 5C Aaron Wilkes 5C Kirsty Slightam 6C Keri Morris 6C Lydia Whitehouse 6C Kelly Highman 6C Rachel Atherton 6C Christopher Kingston 6C Alex Imerfreys 6H Girls and boys raced separately in teams of 4. The course is very challenging with a hill and steps (at least 15 so I’m told). Definitely not for the faint hearted!! The girls race was first, Rachel ran the first leg and got a comfortable lead for the team (she got the fastest time for the course out of all the girls taking part). Lydia and Kirsty ran the second leg (two girls ran this leg since we had an extra team member). Lydia ran ‘the race of her life’ coming in first, Kirsty followed closely behind despite not being very well on the day! The third leg was run by Keri, she too ran an extremely fast leg maintaining our position. Kelly ran a very difficult final leg for the team and was just pipped at the post for first place. The girls team was fabulous and came second overall. The boys ran next, two boys ran on legs one and two because we had one and a half teams. First to go were Robert and Sam, these young runners did magnificently considering they were up against some huge Year 6 boys from the other schools! The second leg was run by Christopher and Matthew, they maintained our position within the middle of the pack. Aaron ran the third leg extremely well and managed to make up some ground. Finally Alex ran, he too overtook a number of other runners and finally bought the boys in at a very commendable 24th place, a superb achievement! There will be a presentation of certificates to the ‘magnificent eleven’ during the Friday assembly on January 31st. Despite being extremely tired it was agreed that it had been a great morning and the team will certainly look forward eagerly to the next event. It should be noted that none of this would have been possible without the commitment of these Cross Country Club members and the support of their parents – a heart felt thank you goes out to all those who helped to make the day happen!! Finally, watch this space!! Regional heats are coming up in our area where our teams will actually be competing. It looks likely that these will be held at sometime during March. If you are interested make sure you become part of the Cross Country Club, training every Thursday after school.
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