PRAYERS were answered for a dry day as the first ever Inter Special Schools cross country championships took place in bright sunshine.

Organisers were hoping that the rain would stay away as schools from across the North West descended on White Ash School in Oswaldtwistle.

And they were not disappointed.

Schools that took part alongside the host team White Ash were Townhouse, Nelson, The Coppice School, Bamber Bridge, Elms Bank, Bury, Firwood, Bolton and Red March School, Blackpool.

The event was split into two categories, under 16s and an open race, where more than 70 runners took part.

The course was set in the grounds of the Oswaldtwistle school where competitors in the under 16s race had to negotiate a 0.5 mile course while those who competed in the open event ran for one mile.

Every competitor who took part received a certificate while there were trophies handed out to individual and team winners.

The event was sponsored by Whitbread Brewery.

And if there was an award handed out for the athlete of the day then that would have had to go Carl McDowell of The Coppice School. For Carl had a very successful day by winning the under 16s race, came runner-up in the open run and helped the Bamber Bridge school to one of the two team awards.

In fact, The Coppice enjoyed a one-two finish in the under 16s with school-mate Steven Gillibrand finishing in runners-up spot which was enough to clinch the team award in that category.

And John Last certainly didn't live up to his name when he took third place.

Elms Bank from Bury took the open race team award mainly due to Arthur Brown who won the individual race who came in just in front of McDowell. James Brooks of Firwood was third.

Host school White Ash were happy with their consistent performance throughout they day when the team came third in both the under 16s and open events.

The school had hoped that Jason Wright was going to get among the trophy winners in the open event but his own enthusiasm was his downfall. For after after he tried to stay with the race leaders in the early stages, he paid for his blistering start and burnt out towards the end.

But Kamran Hussain had a very good run in the same event and finished in fifth place.

Townhouse also had a good day with two runners finishing in the top ten of the under 16s race. Christian Hyatt was first home for the Nelson school when he finished in fourth place and Aqib Ali was not far behind when he finished ninth.

White Ash headteacher Brian Frew said he was delighted with the turnout especially as it was the first cross country event held for special schools in the area.

He said: "Considering this was our first event we were delighted with the way it went. We have a lot of different events throughout the year so we are very pleased that we can provide another one. We want to establish cross country as an annual event.

"The school is set in safe and attractive grounds so we thought it was the ideal location for the event. The first one is always the hardest to organise so hopefully next year we will get more schools involved. I would like to thank all the schools who were involved and Whitbread Brewery who sponsored the event and paid for the trophies."

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