Abingdonian 2017

34 The Abingdonian Cross Country Cross-country continues to go from strength to strength at both the senior and junior ends of the club. Impressive team performances have resulted in victories at Marlborough and the Vale Championships as well as podium positions at the Radley, Wellington and St Edward’s relays. The dedication boys and staff show to training (whatever the weather!) is deeply engrained into the ethos of the club and is highlighted by the club’s success when racing on both the school circuit and in open road races. Knole Run On Saturday 14 January the Cross- Country team travelled to a snow covered Sevenoaks to compete in the Knole run, the most competitive race in the school calendar. With a young team it was always going to be a baptism of fire but the boys ran valiantly coming a respectable fifteenth out of 41 teams competing. Good performances came from Ivo Brown, Calum Steer and Josh Crichton who finished seventeenth, twenty-first and eighty-fourth respectively. Special mention must go to fourth years Alexander Pennington, Kiran Gathani, and Tarik Kurkcu who have three more years to compete at this prestigious race. Vale of the White Horse Championships Held at Radley each year, with hills, woodland, mud, water and fast cut playing field sections this event is cross-country at its purest. On a bitterly cold and blustery Thursday afternoon in February the Abingdon squad made the short journey up to Radley to try and retain the trophy. The juniors set off first; Geordie Anderson set a punishing pace at the start of the race. Although taking a number of tumbles on the muddy course the Abingdon pupils rallied and finished with all seven athletes finishing in the top 20 runners. Second to test themselves over the 4.4km course were the intermediate boys. Special mention must go to Freddie Cunningham who finished second and Josh Broadbent who finished eighth, despite still being a second year pupil. The U17