Head's Newsletter 7 February 2020

At the Surrey Schools Cross Country Championships on Saturday 18 January, 15 Tiffin students were there to compete for the Kingston Team against the best athletes Surrey has to offer. Although the day itself was thankfully dry, the course was treacherous following heavy rain during the week, and with approximately 100 athletes running the narrow course in each age group, it quickly became a mud bath. In the Senior Girl’s race, Neve Husaini, Charlotte Whiteman and Emily Jones navigated the 4 km course safely to close out a highly impressive 3 rd place for Kingston, remarkable given that these girls only took up running in September, and were racing against girls who had competed in this race for years. In the last three years Tiffin has only had one student compete in the year 7 boys race for the Kingston team, so to have three qualify this year was already a success. Yanis and Chadi Falla continued to demonstrate their clear running potential both with good performances and Jesper Naisby meanwhile, was the first athlete from Tiffin on the day to qualify for the Surrey team by finishing in 20 th place. Congratulations to him for this achievement. In the Junior Boys category, two Tiffin students took to the field alongside 92 other athletes. Connor Foley gave it his all but was unfortunately bested by the conditions. He fell twice during the race, but nevertheless persevered to reach the finish line covered in mud and with a number of cuts and bruises as well. Given all that, finishing in 26 th place was highly impressive. Oscar Luck meanwhile had a phenomenal race. Moving to the front of the field early on, he was able to stay out of trouble and finish the race in a triumphant 4 th

place. Not only was it easily his best ever race, but it is also the best result by a Tiffin student in a County Championships race for at least a decade. By finishing in the top 6 he has been selected to represent Surrey in the English Schools Championships, which only 3 other Tiffin students have qualified for in the past decade. Both boys also contributed to another 3 rd place for Kingston in their age group. Tiffin had its greatest representation in the

Intermediate Boys category, with Wil Murphy, Jack Hartrey, Alistair Brendon, Matt O’Donovan and Euan Sinclair all putting in strong performances. Will Murphy was the highest finisher in 15 th place, securing selection for the Surrey Inter County team. That race was last weekend (1 st Feb) and Will contributed to the Surrey B team finishing as 1 ST B team in the event with a 26 th place finish. Finally, in the Senior Boys category, both Tiffin athletes, Ollie Coppellotti (11 th ) and Charlie Krammer (18 th ) qualified for the Surrey Inter- County team, though only Charlie was available for that race. Competing in the Inter County race as only a Year 12 was a great experience for Charlie (all other Tiffin athletes that qualified were at the top of their age group), and hopefully one that he will learn from so that he can do even better next year. He finished as the 63 rd best athlete in the South East, and was part of the 4 th placed Surrey B team.