Felicity Johnson-Deeley (No 529) at the front of the field during the senior girls' race at the English Schools Cross Country Championships. Picture: JOE LEE (WWW.ESAA.NET)

TWO Jersey athletes claimed top 20 places in the English National Schools’ Cross Country Championships in Manchester on Saturday.

Showing their potential Oliver Terry finished 16th out of 330 athletes in the junior boys age group and Felicity Johnson-Deeley, in her first year as a senior, came in 19th from 280.

Despite the heavy rain and cloying mud all four Island athletes who travelled to the Heaton Park event proved their right to be there. For as well as Terry’s remarkable run – his best cross-country to date – team-mates Daniel Robinson, Findlay Wright and George Mason finished 55th, 99th and 136th respectively.

Those results put all three in the top 50 per cent from their age group in Britain and, although placed 55th, Robinson was only 20 seconds behind Terry, indicating the quality of the field. In the Intermediate girls’ race, Chloe Turmel had a fantastic run, finishing in 50th from a field of 335 athletes; an improvement of almost 100 places on last year’s result.

Also at intermediate level, this time in the boys’ competition, Elliot Dorey produced a fine performance, overtaking more than 20 athletes in the last quarter mile to finish a very creditable 117th from a field of 325 athletes.