Matt finishes astonishing season by winning English Schools Champs
Matt Stonier (Marlowe, 6a) rounded off a cross country season he’ll remember for life by winning the English Schools Championships, his sixth major victory of the year and second national title in a week.
Despite more muddy conditions at Sefton Park in Liverpool, the same course on which Matt qualified for his first Great Britain selection just a few months ago, the 18-year-old put in another impressive strategic performance to outsprint North Yorkshire’s Josh Dickinson by two seconds.
It came after Matt had had to wait the whole day for his race, the last of the Championships, killing time by sleeping on bags in the Kent team tent.
A longer version of our interview with English Schools winner Matt Stonier, where he talks about coronavirus concerns relating to his athletics and A-level exams, is over on our Facebook page. https://t.co/tENlfWpGkF
— AW (@AthleticsWeekly) March 14, 2020
The win further demonstrates Matt’s phenomenal form after he won the UK Inter-Counties Championships just a week earlier.
Unlike many top junior athletes, he only started receiving invitations to the English Schools Championships in the last three years and has enjoyed a spectacularly fast rise to the top since then.
And it’s only in the last year that Matt has given up playing cricket and hockey at school to focus solely on running.
Matt’s success in such a short space of time is testament to the hard work he has put in as well as the support he’s received from coaches and understanding teachers, including our head of cross country Mike Mawby who he trains alongside at the local athletics club.
Find out more about sport at King’s here.
Image credit: Adrian Royle