South West Schools Cross Country Championships
Truro School Saturday, 27th February 2010
Cornwall’s young cross country runners did themselves proud in the South West Schools Cross Country Championships held in perfect conditions at Truro School on Saturday 27 February, highlighted by fine individual wins from the county’s two English Schools internationals, Annabel Gummow (Penair) and Conor Robinson (Redruth) and an equally impressive performance from a star in the making, Chessie Waters (Truro School), who sprinted home in the Minor Girls race.
Toying with the opposition is a phrase that comes to mind after watching Gummow cruise alongside the best of the opposition on the opening lap, before moving effortlessly clear, maintaining a punishing pace on the second larger lap and crossing the line thirty eight seconds ahead of Amber Watson (Gloucestershire). With invaluable support froming from Amy Sweet (Penrice), who was sixth and eleventh placed April Hogg (Newquay Treviglas), Cornwall finished second in the team competition, an agonising five points behind the winners, Wiltshire.
Annabel’s next target will be the National Inter Counties Championships on Saturday week, where she will be aiming for a place in Britain’s Junior Women’s team in the World Cross Country Championships in Poland at the end of March. This will mean moving up an age group from her Under 17 category but her winter form certainly gives her a chance of squeezing into the British team. If this fails, there will be the English Schools race in Manchester on the following weekend, when the Penair athlete will be aiming for yet another English Schools vest and the chance to represent her county on home soil, when the Home Countries Schools International race takes place at Truro School, also at the end of March.
There was also a very assured tactical performance from Robinson who appears to have fully recovered from his recent illness. After a cautious start on the first of three laps, the Redruth School youngster began increasing the pace on the second circuit, dropping all his closest challengers, except the Gloucestershire champion Tom Purnell. These two were running shoulder to shoulder approaching the final lap but Robinson soon put his foot on the accelerator, moving clear of Purnell and remained in full control of the race to the finish line, winning by seven seconds.
The team event also produced a Cornwall versus Gloucestershire tussle and again a confident Duchy squad ran superbly, winning the county’s only team title of the championships by a comfortable thirty two point margin. Dan Nash (6th), Hobie Martin (8th) and Andrew Worden (11th) provided Robinson with excellent support, ably backed up by Tom Rawett (22nd) and Jordan Roberts, who was 26th in his first season of cross country running.
The second race of the day for Minor Girls proved to be one of the most exciting individual contests, with Cornwall’s Chessie Waters, running on her home course at Truro School and Lucy Rochford (Wiltshire) locked together with five hundred metres remaining. Perhaps local knowledge of the course worked to Chessie’s advantage, as she timed her finish to perfection, moving into the lead on a short uphill section, before accelerating down the finishing straight, enjoying the deserved applause of the home supporters to win by three seconds. Once again there was more to celebrate with excellent top ten performances from Truro High School’s Harriet Lord (4th) and the Newquay Tretherras runner Georgia Timson (7th), laying the foundations for another fine team performance, with Cornwall finishing second, just six points behind Devon.
There was still more success to come the Duchy’s way in the Junior Girls race, with Cornwall finishing second and collecting their third set of silver medals in the championships. Charlotte Cayton-Smith (Newquay Tretherras) and Yvonne Chart (Truro School), both in their first year in this age group, were never far apart and eventually it was Charlotte who outsprinted Yvonne by two seconds, as the girls finished eighth and nineth respectively. Penair’s Finlay Bray (14th) and Fowey’s Danielle Holmes (15th) both maintained the high standard of cross country running produced by the Cornish teams throughout the day, with very encouraging performances.
The Cornwall Schools Junior Boys champion, Oscar Holdsworth (Truro School), in his first year in this age group, did himself proud against tough opposition, finishing in a fine fourth place, with Sam Heslop-George moving through on the second lap and crossing the line in eleventh position.
The Minor Boys race gave Cornwall their twelfth top ten finisher, as another County Champion, Ben Rogers (Penair) sprinted home in fifth place.
The one slight disappointment from these Championships, was Cornwall’s inability once again to field full teams in the Senior Boys and Girls races, with just three boys and four girls finishing.