The North Yorkshire Schools’ Cross-Country Championships were held in Skipton’s Aireville Park on a crisp but sunny Saturday afternoon. The keen frost meant the courses were not the usual heavy going but runners were charging freely across the ground. There was a good crowd of parents and teachers supporting runners from each of the four regions making up North Yorkshire. Many local runners are to be congratulated as they gained their Area Sports Colours by representing the district. However, Craven athletes were not as much to the fore in these races as normal which is a little surprising as they did have home advantage, having run over the same courses in November’s Harrogate & Craven Championships. In fact Craven athletes only picked up three medals from the eight races, one of each colour. Pride of place went to Giggleswick’s Will Smith, who won the junior boys’ race in 14mins 59 secs. Senior Billy Pinder of Ermysted’s GS was Craven’s silver medallist in 26 mins 4 secs, whilst Roberta Jenkinson (Giggleswick) won bronze in the senior girls’ race in 17 mins 37 secs. However, there was one fairly momentous feat in the senior boys’ race as Ermysted’s had eight8 athletes who gained county selection, more than half of the qualifying team!

In order to win county selection for initially an Inter-Counties match at Durham this Saturday was quite straight forward as athletes needed to finish in the top 12 for Y7 or top 15 for all older age groups. There is also another representative race for the three3 older age groups where a team of eight will run in the English Schools’ Championships on March 20 in Manchester.

Automatic selection for this race is guaranteed for the first six6 with the final two places being decided after the Durham race.

Craven qualifiers, with finishing positions, for the North Yorkshire teams at Durham in age order are: Y7 Girls - Emma Schilders fifth (Skipton Girls). Y7 Boys - Robert Thompson 12th (Ermysted’s). Junior Girls (Y8/9) - Georgia Birley eighth (Giggleswick) 13.54. Junior Boys - Will Smith first (Giggleswick) 14:59, Thomas Blanchard fifth (Ermysted’s) 15:39, Ben Johnstone eighth (South Craven) 16:00 and Phil Done ninth (Ermysted’s) 16:17.

Intermediate Boys (Y10/11) - Faisal Ismail sixth (Ermysted’s) 19:12, Matthew Dyson 15th (Upper Wharfedale) 20:43. Senior Women (Y12/13) - Roberta Jenkinson third (Giggleswick) 17:37, Rebecca McLean fourth (Skipton Girls) 18:19 and Becky Holden 13th (Giggleswick) 21:04. Senior Men - Billy Pinder second (Ermysted’s) 26:04, Will Marshall seventh (Ermysted’s) 27:47, Andrew Cairns eighth (Ermysted’s) 28:10, Alex Sinclair ninth (Ermysted’s) 28:29, Will Crisp 10th (Ermysted’s) 28:39, Tom Sessford 11th (South Craven) 29:23, Joel Wood 13th (Ermysted’s) 30:19, Robbie Swift 14th (Ermysted’s) 30:28 and Eddie Newbould 15th (Ermysted’s) 30:46.