On Tuesday 14th March, Northbourne Park School hosted the 14th running of the Primary Schools Cross-Country Relay and the excitement surrounding this event was as evident as races in the past. Thankfully, the weather was perfect with wall to wall sunshine on the day.
This year, 29 teams participated from 16 different schools, totalling 174 runners. As this is an U11 event, children from Years 5 and 6 are invited to participate in the competition. However, from time to time, if there are pupils in lower year groups that are capable of completing the race, schools are more than welcome to include them. Every child lined up for their turn to run an 800m leg of the relay, with a mixture of nerves and anticipation.
“Cross-country builds character and mirrors life by the virtue that ‘what you put in, you get out!!’ This was an afternoon that every runner will never forget and thus hopefully gain a huge amount from the experience. You never know what you can achieve until you test your limits.” said Craig Riley, Director of Sports.
After a tense and hard-fought race, the top three schools were as follows:
1st Place Sandwich Junior School (A Team)
2nd Place Kingsdown and Ringwould
3rd Place River Primary (A Team)
There were impressive performances from all the runners especially the younger children, good news for future races. Congratulations go to all the schools that participated, this was a great local community event.