George Elliott and Toby Wright show strongly at national cross country championships (From Echo)

George Elliott and Toby Wright show strongly at national cross country championships

4:40pm Friday 1st March 2013 in Sport

VERY few south Essex athletes made the long trip to Sunderland for the English Cross-Country Championships but two who did were rewarded with fine top 10 finishes.

George Elliott was the highest placed finisher of our athletes, with the Eastwood School pupil digging deep in the snow, slush and mud in the north-east to claim an excellent sixth spot in the under-15 boys’ race.

Also excelling was Southend AC’s under-13 athlete Toby Wright, who backed up his fine sixth place at the Southern Cross-Country Championships a week earlier with a ninth-place spot in Sunderland.

Elsewhere, Jodie Judd, from Canvey, was 21st in the under-15 girls’ race and Eastwood School’s Phoebe Jeffrey 123rd in the under-13 girls’ race.

Both Judd and Jeffrey are Chelmsford AC members, as are Sophie Riches and Jess Swain who were 22nd and 79th respectively in the under-17 women’s race.

The only other Southend AC runner competing was Rhys Gillard who was 92nd in the junior men’s race.