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Colleges Sport National Championships 2019
29/04/2019 00:00, In Cross Country / School News /
Last weekend saw another big sporting event going on – at Nottingham University over 1700 students from Further education colleges all over the country were gathered to represent their region in 14 different sports. CollegesWales Sport / Chwaraeon ColegauCymru sent teams to represent Wales in all sports and sent both a boys and girls team in cross country.
The cross country races took place in the grounds of Wollaton Hall, where the SIAB and Home Countries Internationals took place in 2018. The weather on Saturday was awful thanks to Storm Hannah bringing 45 miles an hour gust of wind, freezing temperatures and rain.
The girl's team raced first over 4.5k which meant that they had to climb the hill up to Wollaton Hall twice. Holly Roberts (Coleg Cambria) was first home in individual bronze medal position, underlining her Welsh Colleges title gained last November. This gave Wales a great start, and next to finish was Ellie Robinson (Cardiff and Vale College) in 13th closely followed by Jody Cain (Coleg Menai) in 16th position. Rhiannon Phillips (Neath Port Talbot College) was next in 39th place followed by Caitlin Chapman (St Davids College) who had picked herself up after a nasty fall to come home in 43rd place. Finally to close the team score was Laura Hughes-Dowdle (Gower College Swansea) in 46th place. This was great news as Wales had all six scorers in and had managed to get the bronze medal.
There was no let up with the wind when the boys started their 7.5k race. They had to complete the hill up to the hall 4 times, which was not going to be easy in the strong winds. Callum Campion (Coleg Sir Gar) was the first home for Wales in 15th place, closely followed by Shaun Pinch (Coleg Y Cymoedd) in 18th place. Next to finish was Thomas Callard (NPTC Neath) in 32nd place and he was followed by James Gold (St Davids College) in 38th place. The final boy home was Connor Graham (NPTC Neath) in 46th place. Unfortunately, the boy's team suffered a few late dropouts so were unable to complete a scoring team of 6.
It was a great result for the cross country teams to bring home an individual and team bronze, something that has not been done before.
CollegesWales Sport / Chwaraeon ColegauCymru can take up to 8 athletes in each team so if you are going to a Further Education College in September and would like to be considered for the Welsh Colleges team make sure that the sports teachers at your college know that you would like information about the qualifying races. It would be great if full teams of 8 athletes could represent Wales at the National Championships next year.
CollegesWales Sport / Chwaraeon ColegauCymru would like to thank all the Colleges for supporting their students to take part in the National Championships and Cardiff Metropolitan University for providing sponsorship towards the Wales kit.