Manchester Harriers Primary Schools Cross Countries 2017/18 - Race 1

Our young group of Primary School athletes got the Cross Country season off to a bang. Considering most of them were doing a multi-event competition, only two weeks ago, they all did extremely well for their first race of the season.

Kate got the group off to an excellent start with her first top 20 finish, coming 18th in the Year 3/4 Girls race. A really well deserved result for a young athlete who approaches competition with an excellent attitude! The year 3/4 boys, Dillon & Jacob, were both making their debuts in Cross Country and were both really impressive for different reasons. Dillon(Yr3) came 16th & Jacob came 11th. Both will improve for the run and the experience, but most importantly I hope they enjoyed the event. Well done to our Yr3/4 group - great running!

In the year 5/6 Girls race, Alexa(Yr5) led the way with an excellent 11th place and Ava(Yr5) 24th & Natalie(Yr5) 27th, put in two good solid efforts. It's the first time that the girls have raced over this longer distance and they would have learnt alot and gained some valuable experience. In the Yr5/6 Boys race Jack ran a good race to finish 13th and Ollie(Yr5) put in the outstanding performance of the morning coming an excellent 5th. It's a really well deserved result for a young man who trains twice a week and is completely focused on every exercise he is asked to do in Run, Jump & Throw events. Not only is he a multi-eventer he is doing some excellent multi-activity through his swimming and other sports.

Those may be the outcomes, but as a coach of young developing athletes, I am more interested in the process and it is always good to see what children do in a competitive environment, as opposed to the training sessions. There are further improvements to come from getting the process right.

A really good start to the season! Congratulations to all our young athletes!