This term has seen the best start to a cross country season for a number of years. In our fixture against Lancing College, Charterhouse and RGS Guildford over a four-mile course, the Senior Boys race was won by Hanro Rossouw (Y11), who was followed in by Jake Spence (L6) in second place, Chris Olley (Y11) in third and Jan Sokol (L6) in fourth. It is a long time since we have enjoyed gaining the first four places in this fixture. In the Senior Girls race, Nadia Ogilvie (L6) won by a clear five minutes, beating all the girls and 35 boys in the process!

In the next fixture, against Judd and Ardingly, in the Senior Boys race Jake Spence came second and Jan Solok fourth (Hanro was not running), while Chris Olley came third overall, also winning the Inter Boys race by a clear three minutes in the process. Behind these front runners in both races were some reliable top 12 finishers: Jonah Mendelsohn (L6), Gualtiero Uslenghi (U6), Julius Bottcher (U6) and Alex Branford (L6).

In addition, motivation and effort during training so far this term have been impressive, and a number of runners are additionally training with Tonbridge Athletics Club under the guidance of ex-international runner Darrell Smith. If our runners can maintain a tough level of training and a firm determination through the rest of this term and beyond into the Christmas holidays, the omens for our teams in the Boys and Girls Knole Runs in January are good.