St Swithun’s hosts Hampshire Schools Athletic Association Inter School Cross Country competition

On 26 November St Swithun’s School welcomed almost 700 runners from 35 different schools across the county to the Hampshire Schools Athletic Association Inter School Cross Country Championships. The course, through the school grounds, took in the leafy surroundings of the South Downs National Park in challenging weather conditions.

Each school provided a team of runners whose collective finishing positions contributed to their overall ranking. Year nine athletes from St Swithun’s finished in 2^nd, 3^rd, 9^th, 18^th and 20^th place to win the senior girls competition and be crowned Hampshire Schools Athletic Association champions.

St Swithun’s head of cross-country Paul Boyd-Leslie said “It was great to see lots of smiling, muddy runners having fun on our school grounds whilst competing. There were some wonderful performances as well and all the runners can be very proud of themselves”.

This success for the St Swithun’s team comes on the back of a strong result for their intermediate cross-country athletes at the English Schools Regional Finals earlier in the month. Many of the same runners contributed to a second place overall finish to qualify for the National Finals, to be held in December in Sheffield.