Last Wednesday, the senior cross country team ran in the 53rd King Henry VIII Relays. This race draws its field from all over England and, once again, from Northern Ireland. The six leg, 3.7km course is run on mixed terrain around War Memorial Park in Coventry. Abingdon sent a team to try to improve on third and second place finishes in the past two years, but the opposition was even tougher than usual. Oli ran a captain’s first leg, but was down in 15th place due to the star runners on leg one. Jacob found the going and undergrowth tough, but held our place in the field and then each subsequent leg drew us back into contention. Harry got us into the top ten and Quinlan, on debut, pulled us up to sixth. A strong fifth leg from Ralph set up Monty for the team’s fastest lap of the day (11;48) but, try as he might, the team finished sixth. The race goes up in quality each year, attracting overseas’ teams and those comprised exclusively of sports scholars. Abingdon cross country club continues to be in the mix with the very best in the nation.

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