Kelly College pupils Lachlan Fulton, Robbie Nielsen, Josh Carnell, Sian Temple and Ellen Riis-White have all been selected to represent Devon at the South West Schools’ Cross Country Championships to be held in Bristol in February.
The announcement came after the pupils represented West Devon at the Devon Schools’ Cross Country Championships held at Plymouth’s Central Park on Saturday the 19th of January.
In total, Kelly College had 14 athletes braving the freezing conditions to run in the event. Despite a very demanding course and tough competition, in races containing 60 runners, they achieved some excellent results.
In the Year 7 Boys’ Race, Lachlan Fulton led from the gun and dominated the race superbly, finishing an impressive 20 seconds clear of the field to take the Gold Medal and become County Champion. Archie Trevethan also ran extremely well to finish 36th.
Josh Carnell finished a hard earned 7th in the Senior Boys’ Race over a distance of nearly 7000m, competing well amongst some extremely talented athletes.
In the Junior Boys’ Race, Robbie Nielsen ran a tactically superb race to finish strongly and claim 6th place, with Taku Chaza also running well to finish 38th.
In the Junior Girls’ Race, Sian Temple finished a brilliant second, despite running a year young in her age group, and claimed the Silver Medal.
Other strong performances came from Jemma Layden who finished a good 23rd, Georgia Jones 31st and Brittaney O’Reilly 40th.
In the Year 7 Girls’ Race, Carys Twyman finished a creditable 27th however, Maddie Knight was unable to finish due to injury.
Ellen Riis-White produced a steady run to finish 4th in the Senior Girls’ Race and two good runs saw Beth Watmore finish 27th and Leah Picillo 28th in the Intermediate Girls’ Race.
Overall, this is the best set of results produced by Kelly athletes at this event for many years and our best representation at county level for some time; an outstanding achievement for a small school.