Cross Country Celebration

On Friday 6th October, Team Hamstel kicked off the year’s sporting competitions at the Southend Cross Country event. The team had been training hard at lunchtimes since the summer holidays and were ready and raring to go. The team was made up of 6 boys and 6 girls from Year 1 and 6 boys and 6 girls from Year 2. With 20 schools coming together from across Southend the races were going to be tough. Up to 120 children lined up at the start of each race.

The event started with the Year 1 girl’s race. There was lots of nerves and excitement as the Team Hamstel girls lined up on the start line. The race started and the girls got away well, they worked hard to move their way through the competitors around the 1000m course. Summer was the first finisher for the team in 9th place closely followed by Kiah in 10th. Lennie-Grace finished 15th, Ava was 23rd, Violet was 35th and Nylah was 68th. A great first race of the day and a brilliant performance for all in their first competition representing Team Hamstel.

The Year 1 boys were up next and were keen to show what they could do. The boys found the start hard going with lots of children sprinting off but this did not affect the team. They kept running and starting to move through the field. Lenny was the first finisher in 22nd place, Joshua was not far behind in 28th, Ire finished in 39th, Noah came 48th, Ethan was 54th and Lucky finished in 58th. Some brilliant running and great battling the Year 1 boys.

Next up was the Year 2 girls and some of the team had run last year so knew what to expect. The girls got off to a good start and settled into their running. Harper and Daria pulled away from the others and battled to try to catch the leaders. Harper finished 15th and Daria finished 17th, equaling her position the last year’s race. Hanna was not far behind in 24th, Maya was 28th, Rosie was 30th and Evie finished 32nd. A great team performance!

The last race of the day was the Year 2 boys. A fast start saw the team split up early in the race. Chase got out well and was up near the front of the race. The rest of the team had to fight their way through the crowds to move up the field of competitors. Chase worked extremely hard to try to catch the front pack and did an amazing job finishing in 11th place, 10 places higher than he had come the year before. Didi battled well to finish in 30th, Indy was 36th, Max 42nd, Seb followed in 43rd and Ethan finished in 55th. A super race to end the day.

The team had worked so hard and finished feeling very proud of their achievements. The final thing to do was to wait for the overall results. At the end of all the races, the finishing positions are added up for all the teams taking part. The team with the lowest score is the winner. After a long week of waiting, the results were sent through and Team Hamstel had finished 3rd overall.