MORE than 2,000 children took part in this year's Ealing Borough Schools Cross Country League at Berkeley Fields, Greenford - 300 more than last year.
The races took part over a period of three weeks and ranged from 1500m to 4,000m for children aged between 9 and 16.
Each match was hotly contested by both primary and secondary schools from within the borough, as well as a few schools who regularly compete from neighbouring boroughs.
Parents, grandparents and friends lined the finishing straight, urging the runners on to even greater effort as they sprinted home.
Costons were the overall primary schools' winners. They won the girls' competition outright although Horsenden Primary won the boys' event.
Cardinal Wiseman, another Greenford school, came out on top in the secondary school competition thanks to a win in the boys' event.
Ellen Wilkinson took the girls' secondary school prize.
Individual winners were: Primary Schools: Y5/6 Boys - Keitaro Takagi (Hobbayne); Y5/6 Girls - Annabel Morgan (Bute House). Secondary Schools: Y7 Boys - Rowan Board (Drayton Manor); Y7 Girls - Sabba Raha (St Augustine's);
Y8/9 Boys - Sam McGonigle (Drayton Manor); Y8/9 Girls - Kerry Baily (Ellen Wilkinson); Y10/11 Boys -- Connor Hearn (Elthorne Park); Y10/11 Girls - Ellis Redmond (Drayton Manor).
Drayton Manor trio Rowan Board, Sam McGonigle and Ellis Redmond won all three of their
races in the series.
The races were organised by Active Ealing (the sports development arm of Ealing Council), the Ealing Schools Partnership (especially West London Academy and Featherstone High School) and members of Ealing Southall & Middlesex Athletic Club.
