Tiffin reached new heights on Wednesday with an all time best in the King Henry VIII Coventry Cross Country Relay race. The boys stormed to eighth place, beating our personal best of ninth place in 2008.
Pancho started off the first leg fast for the As, coming in hot in 5th place, our best ever first leg. Anas then took over and showed us a great performance to hold off the other Y13s in the group whilst being a Y9 athlete, maintaining 6th position. Cathal stormed through with a fantastic run, absolutely caked in mud but he traversed the Agincore-esque mud to get Tiffin back into 5th. We then saw a courageous debut from Aleks Lorenc where he maintained an incredible 10th place, keeping Tiffin in the run for top 10. Max Jones again showed that heart comes before height as he showed up the older boys in the competition with a solid steaming run, coming through in 9th. Finally, James Clifford got all of the girls cheering for him in the final 400m, where he pulled off one of the most iconic finishes to a race that Tiffin has ever seen. James managed to overtake local rivals Greycourt in the dying moments of the race and secured a historic 8th place in the King Henry VIII relays.
The B team were inspired in their running too, with Haruki Noonan jostling on the busy start line to steer the team to a good spot early on. Usain (Fredric) Bolt(on) took the second leg, Struan thundered through the third and the Y8 heroes Dylan Krevor and Billy Lloyd-James kept the race competitive in the fourth and fifth legs. Billy’s sprint finish was particularly inspired, leaving it all out there on the field (including his shoe). Finally, Joshua Anstey finished the race with purpose, anchoring the team.
After a hearty tea of sausage and chips, British Olympic 400m runner Charlie Dobson presented the medals. It was great to see the A team head up to the stage to collect their badges for the top 10 finish. Tiffin improved by eight places since last year, meaning we were only one away from winning the most improved award.
The coaches, Messrs Shaw and Frost, had a great time at the race and were delighted to be joined by local alumnus Andrew Tian. Tian led an excellent warm up and joined the coaches in yelling support to the runners. It was a fantastic day out and a great effort from all those involved; runners, coaches, organisers and on-site staff. We are very grateful to King Henry VIII School for hosting us.