Battling Ermysted’s pipped for bronze in national finals (From Craven Herald)

Battling Ermysted’s pipped for bronze in national finals

1:30pm Thursday 8th December 2011 in Athletics

Ermysted’s Grammar School’s junior boys team missed out on a medal in the English Schools' Cross-Country Cup final by just four points on Saturday.

The North East champions had gone into the event with high hopes but found themselves up against tough opposition at Prince thorpe College, Warwickshire.

But fourth place with 103 points represented a brave effort by the Skipton team competing against the top 24 schools in the country in an event that attracted an initial entry of 400.

They were pipped for the bronze medal by St Columba’s College from St Albans.

The quality of the opposition was reflected in the points scores of the top two teams.

Queen’s College, Taunton took first place with an impressive 40 points while Dr Challenor’s Grammar School, Amersham were second on 54.

The junior race began in lovely conditions on a fast and reasonably firm course with just one hill. Ermysted’s were ready for the cavalry charge start and all the team members got off in the top 30 or 40 runners. James Lund is well on his way back following his broken toe and was really determined all the way around. He kept pressing and worked his was through the field to 16th place by the end. Charlie Lowrie, who had beaten Lund after a great battle in last week’s Harrogate & Craven Schools Championships, fancied his chances again.

Like Lund he is a year seven pupil and will be eligible for another go at the event next year.

Lowrie was in the top 30 or so nearly all the way round but just slipped a few places to 36th as he came down the finishing stretch. Two of the runners who went past him were team-mates Luke and Matthew Thompson. They had been tracking him all the way up the hill but made a significant move along the high part of the course. They then overtook about ten runners each and pushed well into the 20s, where a great sprint finish gave Luke the bragging rights in the Thompson household.

He finished 25th with Matthew 26th to give Ermysted’s their team score of 103 points.

The non-scorers were Alistair Harvey – who was disappointed with only 48th after being runner-up in the Year 8 race at last week’s area championships – and George Maloney who came down with flu and slipped dramatically to 114th.