CROSS COUNTRY PICTURES: Schools' county championships slideshow

Boys and girls from Years 5 and 6 battle it out for Warwickshire titles at Kilsby Lane
Action from the girls' race on Saturday   PICTURES BY MIKE BAKERAction from the girls' race on Saturday   PICTURES BY MIKE BAKER
Action from the girls' race on Saturday PICTURES BY MIKE BAKER

Teams of athletic year 5 and 6 boys and girls representing the Northern, Eastern, Southern and Central areas competed in the Warwickshire Primary Schools Cross Country Championships on Saturday.

The event is hosted by each area every four years and this year it was the turn of the Eastern area - bringing the event to Rugby.

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Prior to this the children had competed in three neighbourhood trials to achieve their place in the team.

Action from the girls' race on Saturday   PICTURES BY MIKE BAKERAction from the girls' race on Saturday   PICTURES BY MIKE BAKER
Action from the girls' race on Saturday PICTURES BY MIKE BAKER

The Eastern area team comprised of children from a variety of schools in the Rugby area.

The event is usually hosted at Princethorpe School, but this was unavailable.

Rugby Town Junior Football Club kindly offered their grounds and it proved to be an excellent venue.

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Many people commented on how good the facilities were there and how lucky the Eastern area are to have such a venue to use.

The boys' racing in the Warwickshire Primary Schools Cross Country ChampionshipsThe boys' racing in the Warwickshire Primary Schools Cross Country Championships
The boys' racing in the Warwickshire Primary Schools Cross Country Championships

Gwil Price MBE, who maps out the courses for the National Secondary Schools and National Independent Schools Championships, mapped out the challenging course for the children to run and has been instrumental throughout the selection process.

The Rugby Play Rangers were on hand to provide an invigorating warm up for all the competitors, making sure that muscles were warm for the event.

Representatives from Rugby & Northampton Athletics were also on hand to man the course and identify any talent they noticed from the Eastern Area. This truly was a community event.

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The girls were first to run with Freya Slattery ( Northern Team) in first place, Mel Gould in second and Elspeth Unitt in third (both representing Central Team).

Action from the girls' race on Saturday   PICTURES BY MIKE BAKERAction from the girls' race on Saturday   PICTURES BY MIKE BAKER
Action from the girls' race on Saturday PICTURES BY MIKE BAKER

The Central team won the overall event. Next it was the boys turn with Louis Kendrick (Southern team) in first place, Lewis Gurney (Eastern Team) in second and Sam Yates (Northern Area) in third.

It was a great victory for the Eastern team to have a home win for the boys, who have not won the trophy since 2006.

Rugby Mayor, Cllr Richard Dodd was on hand to make the presentations to the individual medal winners and the trophies to the teams.

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“We were very lucky on the day with regard to the ground and the weather after Wednesdays rain and floods,” said Angela Marsay PE Co-ordinator of Boughton Leigh Junior School, who was responsible for organising the event.

“This is such a difficult sport and all the children have done remarkably well to achieve the standards they have.”

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