Athletics & Cross Country

“as always, Churcherians gave an excellent account of themselves”

The athletics and cross country season, as always, got underway against the splendid backdrop of the highest point of the South Downs, as 45 students alongside a great many runners from the community attempted the annual Butser Hill Challenge in aid of FitzRoy. Although spectators got to bask in the sunshine, enjoying contributions from compère Mr Rowley and the school rock bands, the hot conditions added to an already gruelling event. As always, Churcherians gave an excellent account of themselves; Adam Childs was the first home amongst staff and students in the senior race and there were some sterling efforts lower down the ages.

The cross country season was soon under way; first up was the English Schools’ Cross Country Championships, a tough team event where only the top two schools (out of 23) progress to the next round. Unfortunately, our junior and intermediate boys and girls couldn’t break into the top two, but ran exceptionally well on a particularly cold and wet day at Embley Park. However, just a few short weeks later, they would taste success… at the Hampshire Inter Schools Cross Country Competition, Churcher’s would be the only school to raise two junior teams in the boys’ event, finishing third and seventh respectively out of the 20 schools present, with Will Bailey first across the line for Churcher’s, in 11th place out of 123, and Poppy Kilpatrick raced hard to earn her 13th place out of 101 runners in the individual scoring in the girls event.

We continued our fine tradition of representing the South East Region at the Hampshire Cross Country Championships – Tom Briggs and Ben Wright raced in the intermediate boys, with Tom finishing 23rd. However in the junior ages groups, 19 of the South East team came from Churcher’s; the highest represented school in the South East of Hampshire for the second consecutive year.

Unfortunately, the Covid-19 pandemic cut the athletics season short before it had even started, although this means that Liv Busher (javelin) and Ollie Bowen (high jump) retain their status as county champions. Liv continues her national aspirations in the javelin, ranked sixth nationally for her age group last season, and Natalia Ivanov is currently ranked second nationally for her age group in the pole vault; exciting times ahead! Mr K Maguire