Middlesex Schools Cross Country Championships 2024

On Tuesday 6 February, the SPS cross country runners had a fantastic afternoon at the Middlesex Schools XC Championships, hosted at Harrow School. On a blustery day, all the athletes were vying not only for the pride of winning a county title but also at stake were qualification places for the national championships for the top 8 finishers in each age category.

Leau Roch (Fourth Form) was the first to run in the junior boys race (4.5km). He started well and was even leading the field with only half a kilometre to go, but a cruelly timed stomach cramp thwarted his ambitions to win his first county title, eventually finishing in a still respectable 7th position. Despite the disappointment of having victory so agonisingly taken away, he did secure one of the coveted qualifying places for the English Schools Championships to be held in Pontefract on 16th March.

However, the best was yet to come. In the senior race (7km) Benjy (Lower Eighth) put together his best race of the season so far, tracking a talented Harrow runner with proven credentials on the national stage for much of the race, he flew past him with 800m to go and continued to go away to take a commanding win and book his ticket to Leeds. Close behind him, in 5th, Max (Upper Eighth) was also having a strong race, beating the Richmond runner who got the better of him a week earlier and making it three ¿ìÉ«ÊÓƵ’s runners on the Middlesex Team for the national championships. And Thomas Homes (Upper Eighth) achieved his goal of finishing in the top half of the field with a strong run, finishing 19th out of 42 runners.

Two SPJ athletes were also in action, Max Isaacs (Lower Third) finished 18th out of 66 runners in the minor boys (U13) category and Joaquim Strabo (Upper Third) finished 16th out of 58 runners in the junior boys (U15) race, so the future is a bright one. Well done to all the runners and thanks goes out to all of the coaches for the work they have done to prepare the runners for today.