English Schools

After impressing the selectors at the South West Championships in Gloucester, six of our runners were chosen to represent Somerset at the English Schools National Championships. Sefton Park, Liverpool, was the venue this year, and it proved to be a very fast course, but also very narrow, with tight, right-angled turns. Unfortunately Somerset were drawn on the inside, which meant many of our runners found themselves trapped at the first bend by runners cutting across them, and this severely hampered all of our athletes.

Charlie MacLean though battled back hard to finish 10th, the best finish of all our runners, and he is a reserve to win his England vest at the end of the month. Tom Lawson made up a huge number of places after having been trapped at the start, while both Olivia Taylor and Mhairi Hall had comfortable runs after their own problems at the first bend. Harry Hudson avoided too much trouble at the start, and finished well-placed, while Matt Peek thoroughly enjoyed the whole experience, if not the start, but would have definitely preferred more rugged terrain.