Bronwen sparkles in national finals
NINE pupils of Scarborough and District schools represented North Yorkshire at the English Schools Cross Country Championships, which were held at Ilton in Somerset.
The participants in this year’s championships had been selected by their county association, and therefore represented the top athletes aged 13 to under 18 in England the country competing as individuals and also in teams of eight. with the first six finishers to score for their county’s team.
The most successful Scarborough & District athlete was Bronwen Owen, of Lady Lumley’s School, who finished in sixth place overall in the intermediate girls race, and therefore gained immediate selection for the English Schools team at the Home Countries and Irish Republish international, which will be held in Perth tomorrow.
Bronwen will be joined at the international by York Schools representative Joshua Schofield, who was the only other athlete from North Yorkshire Schools to be selected so far.
Bronwen also led home the North Yorkshire Schools team which finished eighth of the 44 complete county teams.
Also competing in the intermediate girls race was Scarborough Athletic Club’s Louise Taylor who was competing for Humberside Schools as a pupil of Driffield School and as the county champion.
Louise finished up in 61st of the 331 finishers, and was the first finisher for Humberside Schools.
In the junior girls race, Emma Clapton, of Lady Lumley’s, made a notable championship debut, and fully justified her county selection when finishing up in 94th of 337, and was the fourth counter for the team which finished seventh of 44 teams.
Scarborough and District schools were very well represented in the senior girls race by four athletes, three of whom are pupils at Whitby Community College.
The first of the quartet to finish was Dani Braithwaite, of Whitby CC, who was 48th and first to finish for the county team, which was 10th of the 37 teams.
Danniwas followed by fellowwhitby students, Becky Mills, in 106th and fourth county scorer, and Grace Rodgers, who was 160th and sixth county scorer.
Charlotte Edge, of Scarborough 6th Form, finished ahead of Grace in 133rd of the 307 finishers, and was fifth North Yorkshire team counter. The team finished 10th of 37 teams.
The combined North Yorkshire Schools girls teams finished second overall of the medium sized counties, based on the school population, and were the 10th team, ahead of West Yorkshire and South Yorkshire teams.
The most successful of the three North Yorkshire Schools boys representatives was Bobby Scarborough, of Graham School, who finished up in 160th in the intermediate boys race, and was the third county team finisher.
He was followed by Will Spencer, of Malton School, who finished 220th of the 315 finishers and was the sixth counter for the team which was 28th of 42 teams.
In the junior boys race, Tyler Hutchinson, of Ryedale School, finished 153rd of 329 and was the sixth counter for the team which finished fifth of 43 teams.