More than 500 primary school children have had a taste of cross-country at an event which will select pupils to represent Norwich in county-wide finals later this month.

Yesterday's event, organised by the Norwich School Sport Partnership, saw 580 pupils from Year 2 to Year 6 compete over courses of different lengths at Earlham Park.

Year 2 participants ran 1,000m, Year 3-4 participants ran 1,200m, while those in Year 5 and Year 6 completed a distance of 1,600m.

Jon Osborne, partnership development manager at Norwich School Sport Partnership, said: 'The aim of the event was to encourage more young people to represent their school at competitive sports. It was also part of the Norfolk School Games, so will act as a qualifying competition. The top 10 boys and girls in Years 3-6 will go forward to represent Norwich in the final, on November 30. A lot of them had prepared at school by learning about cross-country, pacing and endurance in PE lessons. Some of the schools have their own cross-country clubs where they can practice a bit. They will all have been selected by their school, either based on their engagement with PE lessons and their performance, but the aim is not just to give an opportunity to the good runners, but also those who might be good in the future, and to give them a chance to try something new.'

Students from Easton and Otley college helped to marshal the event.

See norfolkssp.co.uk

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