WILTSHIRE SCHOOLS CROSS COUNTRY: Brothers are out in front (From Wiltshire Times)

WILTSHIRE SCHOOLS CROSS COUNTRY: Brothers are out in front

7:00am Saturday 28th January 2012 in General Sport By Dan Barnes

ST AUGUSTINE’S trio Robert and John Howorth and Henry Dixon dominated the podium places at last weekend’s Wiltshire Schools Cross Country Championships at Grittleton House.

Robert, 11, who lives in Hilperton, beat twin brother John by just two seconds in a sprint finish to take the minor boys title and the pair were closely followed by 12-year-old Dixon in third.

Gold medallist Robert was pleased to get the better of his brother at Grittleton.

“It’s quite funny because John tended to win most of the races last season and I won most of the races the year before, so it kind of alternates every season,” he said.

His brother John added: “You can’t say that I don’t mind (losing to Robert) but if it’s that close, then it’s not as bad as being quite a way behind.

“The support for us was good and it encouraged us to do well.”

Bronze medallist Dixon was pleased with his third-placed finish and didn’t mind finishing behind his schoolmates.

“I tried to stick with them but after a while, they started to get away from me so I just went at my own pace,” said the youngster, who lives in Frome.

In the senior girls race, St Laurence School’s Katherine Turner, 18, clinched third place behind Warminster’s Imogen Wolsey (South Wilts Grammar School) and Sheldon School’s Alex Stainthorpe, from Hartham, near Corsham.

“I was quite pleased because I run more on the track doing 800s and 1500s and don’t really do much cross country, so it was a good training run – I’m pleased with third place,” she said.

Another St Laurence School student, 15-year-oldcounty runner Alex Carter, from Winsley, dominated the intermediate boys race, finishing a minute and 14 seconds ahead of Will Ballard, from St John’s School in Calne.

John of Gaunt School’s Caitlin Wosika was second in the minor girls race, while Melksham Oak’s Will Stockley, who is currently unaffiliated to an athletics club, finished third in the junior boys.

North Wiltshire topped the team standings at the end of the day with 36 points, 11 points ahead of second-placed Salisbury, with West Wiltshire third with 18.

Wiltshire Schools Athletics Association chairman and race organiser Tim Whiting hailed the championships’ landmark 80th year as the greatest in its history so far.

“It was, without doubt, our most successful year. We had eight races in an hour- and-a-half and all of the results up online straight away so you could sit there and watch them appear,” he said.

“It’s about giving the service to the athletes that they should be getting. Wiltshire has got some top class athletes and superb coaches and it’s our job to lay on a championship worthy of them.

“The whole set-up at Grittleton House is excellent. George Lewis, the head of PE and the headteacher Nathan Dawes always assist to help ensure that we can host a successful championship.”