Podium spot for Faith at cross-country finals

The cream of West Norfolk’s cross-country representatives joined forces for the English Schools Athletics Association (ESAA) annual cross-country final.A week after the national inter-county cross-country event, juniors from the region returned to action on a muddy course at Pontefract.Faith Turner collected a third-place finish for the county with Ethan Ward, Thomas Murray, Evie Clayton, Dom Marray-Woods, Ed Murray and Charlie Frammingham and Ryston’s Olivia Ord completing the West Norfolk representation.This was a strong turnout for the area and a talented group of athletes running at the highest level, with each race hosting more than 300 runners from across England.First up on the day was the inter girls (school year 10/11) over a 3450m course.Evie Clayton continues her comeback from illness with 287th place in 15.52 as a younger-year athlete.The junior boys followed over 3180m (yr 8/9) with Ethan Ward (yr9) and Thomas Murray (yr8) finishing just two seconds apart, fourth and fifth place for Norfolk, with 11.24 173rd and 11.26 178th respectively.The junior girls ran the same length course, which, at this point, was even more churned up by the previous races.Turner enjoyed a strong race for her podium place in 315th overall (13.54) while Olivia Ord finished 337th in 14.40 to be sixth Norfolk girl home.Again, both are a younger year, so they still have another year to impress.The inter-boys had even more mud to handle over 4495m – at this point, the white of the Norfolk vest doesn’t seem a good idea for cross country.Again, separated by just two seconds, Charlie Frammingham and Ed Murray, both yr 11, finished strongly in 17.25 and 17.27 respectively, for 186th and 193rd place, sixth and seventh for Norfolk.Dom Marray-Woods represented the senior boys (year 12/13) as a younger year runner over a long course of 5970m and ran very well for 299th place in 25.39 and fifth for Norfolk.These large-scale events see the best runners in the country come together so to gain a place and represent their home county is a massive achievement and something to be very proud of.This typically signals the end of cross-country season and both Ryston Runners and West Norfolk can now look forward to seeing what the junior endurance runners can do on the track this season.