St Swithun’s School intermediate cross-country team 5th at ESAA national final
13 Jan 2017
A team of six intermediate cross-country runners from St Swithun’s School, Winchester came 5th out of 20 teams in the English Schools Athletics Association national final. This is the first time St Swithun’s girls have achieved this level at cross-country running.
The team qualified for the regional event in early October when they won the first round on home turf at St Swithun’s School. They then went on to finish 1st in the regional event at Tonbridge on 12 November to secure their team place in the national final which was held on the 3 December at Range High School in Formby, Lancashire, with 140 runners competing.
The intermediate team is: Alessandra Tydeman, aged 14 from Woodbridge (9th), Tallulah Jeffes, 14 from Winchester, (16th), Elizabeth Adamson, 13 from Eastleigh (55th), Alice Calder, 15 from Alresford (58th), Maddie Turner, 15 from Andover (93rd) and Florence Goodhand, 14 from Alresford (118th).
Four U14 team members also competed in the Inter Schools cross-country competition at Anstey Park on 29 November where they won the team event. Alessandra Tydeman came third to win the bronze medal, Sophia Motala Evans was 11th, Isabel Melhuish, 14th and Florence Goodhand 16th.
The St Swithun’s U12 and U13 teams also ran extremely good races to both achieve second place out of 20 schools competing in their respective categories at the same event.
St Swithun’s sports coach Dot Hogg said “The girls have worked hard individually and produced exceptional results in their cross country running this term. They are great at motivating one another, especially on rainy days, to push the whole team to success. I am very proud of them and congratulate them on their placings at both the regional and national events”.
Photo: St Swithun’s intermediate cross-country team