King James Academy in Royston showed themselves to be fleet of foot by winning a number of district cross-country titles.

Under normal circumstances they would have travelled to Fairlands Valley Lakes in Stevenage for the North Hertfordshire Schools event.

However, due to COVID-19 restrictions the championship went virtual to allow the 16 schools involved to enter pupils from Year 7 to Year 11.

And the pupils of the Garden Walk-based school turned the event into a full week of races, with all 874 students taking part.

Distances varied from Year 5 competing over one mile to Year 11 running two miles.

The results were firstly used to decide the school’s own house competition, that bringing overall success for Pegasus.

But the quickest times from eight boys and girls from each year group were then sent into the district organiser who collated the results from across the area.

And once all of the schools’ times had been sorted, King James were left with a lot of celebrating to do.

They won all five team championships for the girls and claimed three second places in the five boys’ competitions.

There were also some notable individual performances with 11 top three positions including six district champions.

The champions were Iris Flin (Year 7 girls), Poppy MacLeod (Y8 girls), Rhiannon Jones (Y9 girls), Emma Todd (Y10 girls), Edward Ormsby (Y8 boys) and Ryan Wall (Y9 boys).

There were second places for Hannah Barnes in the Year 11 girls and Rory Gage in the Year 7 boys while Kaydi Asling (Y7 girls), Sofia Foulser (Y8 girls), Libby Danaher (Y9 girls) and Oscar Herd (Y9 boys) all took third.

Rob Dowler, head of PE and sport at the school, said: “It was fantastic to see every pupil take part in the cross-country with the focus always being to achieve their personal best.

“We had a number of pupils also come in early some days to try to improve on their times.

“When those efforts then transfer into district championships wins, it is always a nice bonus.

“The cross-country events had given the pupils another opportunity to challenge themselves and show resilience in their work.”