A great time was had by all 10 athletes at the National Cross Country Championships in Taupo.

 While waiting for the course to open we visited Huka Falls and Aratiatia Rapids which were well worth the visit.

Friday was spent going around the 2km and 3km courses a couple of times, familiarising ourselves with the layout and the ground conditions. After this we soaked in the hot water stream at the edge of the course, which was a great way to finish the day.

On Saturday we competed in the Cross Country events. The athletes did themselves proud with the best result being 15th in the Under 19 three man teams' event. In the Individual Under 19, 6 km race there were 222 runners. The results were: George Bates 53rd in a time of 21:10, William Scharpf 62nd in a time of 21:29, Finn Ward 88th in a time of 22:11, Matt McCutcheon 160th in a time of 24:24, Leon Cossou 174th in a time of 26:01 and Alex Brown 175th in a time of 26:31.In the Under 15 race of 4 km there were 156 runners in the field. The results were: Ollie Young 68th in a time of 15:11, Harry Mason 139th in a time of 17:04 and Hugh Askerud 140th in a time of 17:11. Brayden Scott was 89th in the Junior race in a time of 15:55 for 3km. There were 142 in that field. On the Sunday Matt, Finn, George and William were selected to run the 10km Under 19 relay for Otago, coming 11th and Ollie, Harry, Hugh and Brayden were selected for the Under 15 Otago team. They came 13th. All of the athletes competed extremely well in this challenging competition.