The cross country season closed in style at the English Schools Cross Country Championships at the weekend.
Forty of the counties' most talented endurance youngsters made the journey to the prestigious event having been selected from qualifying rounds earlier in the year.
This year’s event was held at the iconic Sefton Park in Liverpool, usually known for being extremely muddy.
This was not to be the case on Saturday as the sun shone in the sky and underfoot was dry meaning the course was fast and furious.
Opening the races were the inter girls, where the team placed an impressive 4th out of 42 counties. Isabella Buchanan gave everything she had and despite a fall as she approached the line, finished in 12th closely followed by team mate Elodie Hill in 13th.
Florence Goodwin was 39th and Isabella Lendrum 47th.
Finishing in the top 100 at this competition is a great achievement with nearly 400 runners in each race. Congratulations to Horsham Blue Star's Izzy Wheeler, who finished in 5th competing for Surrey.
One of the top Sussex performances of the day came in the next race, the junior boys, where George Urben finished in a brilliant 5th place, meaning he has been selected to represent England at SIAB the following weekend.
Overall the team placed 5th with Harry Chapman 14th, Samuel Gill 54th, William Guy 94th, Lucas Bulger 99th and Cory Walker 101st.
Stella Gambie was the highest finishing junior girl in 66th.
The inter boys just missed out on a team medal in coming 4th but with Taylor Thom Watts crossing the line in 8th, it was another England vest earned – and he is only first year in the age group.
In the same race Finlay Lumber Fry came 22nd, George Armstrong Smith 27th, Joe Stewart 51st, Michael O’Connor 90th and Ben Stewart 91st.
Ava James was flying high after winning the UK CAU Inter Counties the week before. Again, like Nottingham, as the race progressed it was Ava and Surrey athlete Katie Pye pushing each other stride for stride. Heading into the final stretch, Katie had more in her legs and this week Ava scooped a super silver.
With her amazing team mates placing 6th (Daisy Connor), 11th (India Somerville), 15th (Freda Pearce), 22nd (Esme Stephenson), 29th (Molly Smithers), 39th (Frida Rocha) and 103rd (Alice Cox) it was a Sussex senior girls’ gold and the best team score of the day.
Lucas Gorrill was the top finishing senior boy in 22nd followed by Freddie Matthews in 71st, Thomas Barnett in 92nd and Freddy Boniface 100th.
The English Schools is always such a highlight of the season. It could never go ahead without the amazing dedication and time given by the volunteers. A huge thank you to Sue Thomas, John Clements, Jason Jeffry, Will Broom, Adeline Preston and Emma Satterly who made the experience possible for the Sussex athletes.