ATHLETICS

SEVEN Woodford Green Athletic Club with Essex Ladies' young athletes made the long journey up to Liverpool's Sefton Park to represent their counties in the English Schools Cross Country Championships.

Ronnie Sparke was the top performer with a ninth-place finish in the senior boys' race.

Coach Richard Thurston was pleased with the youngster's performance, saying: "It was an excellent result in very tough conditions. The heavens opened when his race started, making the conditions really hard."

The Sefton Park course is known to be flat and fast, and the field that Sparke was competing against was a high quality one, with several runners from the National Cross Country U20 men's race involved.

Sparke, racing for Hertfordshire Schools and in his first year in the senior age group, ended the day only 53 seconds behind winner David Forrester.

He also picked up a team silver with his Herts team finishing only two points behind winners West Yorks.

Meanwhile, Alex Cornwell performed well in the inter boys event.

Although he finished 95th, Cornwell was holding onto 12th place by the end of the first lap in a very talented field in a high paced race.

He slowed on the second lap and was passed by Khalid Yusuf, who secured the silver medal as a junior boy in last year's event.

This year, he finished 55th, a mere 41 seconds behind the winner.

Both Cornwell and Yusuf were in the scoring six as the Essex Team took the team bronze in the race.