Cross Country nationals

By Richard Sykes | Posted: Friday June 21, 2024

On Saturday 15th of June, Ruie Hyslop, Henry Hodgson and William Bolter headed up to QE2 Park in Christchurch for their first taste of national level cross country running.

It was a fairly grey morning and the ground was damp and slippery. There was a great deal of interest in the 2 hurdles that would have to be cleared as they went around the track with much discussion about the best approach to these. The fields were all significantly larger than those our boys were used to running in, with around 150 runners in each race. The first 150 metres was run at a furious pace as runners thundered past spectators and were funnelled down from 30 abreast to 5 wide in the main track.

Henry was the first of our athletes to run in a 4km race. He didn't get too carried away in the start and was in the top third as he headed onto the course proper. As the race progressed he got more comfortable, and by the time all was said and done, Henry was 68th across the line with a time of 14:48. This was slightly misleading as the race included para-athletes who were running only 2 km. I think he would have finished in the mid 40s. The winning time in this race was an extraordinary 12:16. This pace will put him in 3rd in the senior race if he can hold it.

William Bolter was up next, slipping his young feet into his brother Matthew's shoes. He took it very easy at the start not being carried away with the crazy pace at the start of the race. At one point, albeit very briefly, he was at the very back of the pack. From there he started to pick off runners one by one slowly working his way through the field. A furious sprint finish saw him pick up an extra 3 places finally finishing in 66th with a time of 11:24 for his 3km race. The winning time was 9:46.

Finally, Ruie Hyslop stepped up. All year he has been winning races by over a minute, running alone at the front of the race, so this was going to be a very different experience for him. The race started furiously with 2 runners leading a flat sprint to be first into the course proper, this had an impact on most of the other runners who felt they should be in the lead pack. After the first of 4 laps Ruie was in the leading group with 2 runners starting to pull off to the front. For the rest of the race it was about holding on and it was a long race to hold on for. Ruie ran the 6km race in a very respectable 19:50, coming in 24th. He will have learned a great deal from this experience about pacing and running in a group like this. The winning time this year was a very rapid 17:57 with only one runner able to go under that magic 3 minutes / kilometre.

That capped off another successful cross country season for OBHS. I am looking forward to seeing where these young athletes get to in 2025.

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