With the end of March fast approaching, the only remaining the final remaining cross-country for any LBAC members was the National Schools Championships that took place this year in Heaton Park, Manchester on a very wet and miserable Saturday. (Some might say that it's always wet and miserable in Manchester, but not me!)

The National Schools is often considered to be the highest level of competition for the junior age groups because it pulls in kids from all the sports who may not run on a regular basis. With that in mind, simply qualifying is a great acheivement and one that two LBAC athletes can be proud of. Over the course of this season Billy Mead and Bryan Foulger have done an excellent job of being the stalwarts of the U15 team in all of the cross-countries, but with a school year between them and the schools agegroups being split differently, Bryan qualified as a top year Junior and Billy did particularly well to get into the Inter boys team a year young.

Reports from the day have come back and said that the course was extremely tough with the weather making it constant mud all the way around on a course that was already hilly enough to force runners into clambering up one of the hills using their hands! In the junior boys race Bryan ran well to come home in 260^th place with well over 300 athletes competing and helped Bedfordshire to 19^th position overall and 4^th in the category C counties with 60,000 children or less. In the Inter boys race Billy enjoyed himself so much that he was inspired to come and do the Sport Relief Mile the next day! Being a year young, simply qualifying and coming home in 318^th position is a great effort and will undoubtedly lead on to good things over the coming year.

Well done to both lads for a sterling effort this season and now they can look forward to some good summer running!