SALESBURY Primary School’s boys team produced one of the greatest displays of running in recent years to storm to victory in the annual Blackburn and Darwen Cross Country Championships.

The Lovely Hall Lane school won all three team titles but it was the boys who led the charge with one of the lowest scores ever recorded over the three race series.

The scoring system meant that they higher you finished, the lower the score and the boys team finished with a total of just 65 points - a whopping 240 ahead of nearest rivals Westholme in second place place.

Salesbury were crowned overall champions and the boys and girls teams clinched the double while Henry Harbord was named individual boys winner after winning two of the three races and coming second in the third race.

Only Hollie Cubon of Westholme denied Salesbury a clean sweep after she was crowned girls champion and she also won twice and was runner-up in her third outing.

Queen Elizabeth Grammar School hosted the third and final race of this year’s Blackburn Primary Schools Cross Country Championship which was staged over five months.

The first race took part in October, the second in February and the third held this month.

More than 20 schools in total took part in the series. To qualify for the team event, each school had to have at least four runners in each of the three nights. However, schools that didn’t enter that amount were still entered into the individual race scores.

Over the course of the series, a total of 200 children attended and they all did their schools proud.

After every athlete finished the race, the scores from the top four runners from each school were combined to get scores which was repeated in both the boys’ and girls’ race.

Those scores were combined over the three events to get the overall team score. The individual scores were calculated using the same scoring method.

And there were some impressive individual performance, most notably from Hollie Cubbon and Henry Harbord.

Hollie’s double victory saw her finish ahead of Eleanor Allsop from St James’ Lower Darwen while Alice Hall from Salesbury was third In the boys race, Henry was denied a hat-trick of wins after storming to victory in the first two races he had to settle for second place in the third which was won by the ever improving Geoff Holmes who was second overall. Ishan Goshawk from Salesbury was third.

The individual success of the Salesbury runners meant it was no surprise that they took all three crowns.

In the overall team competition, they had an impressive score of 161 points with Westholme some way behind in second on 456 and The Redeemer third on 618.

A score of 96 saw Salesbury take the girls team honours with Westholme again second and The Redeemer third.

And the boys recorded one of the lowest ever scores in the competition registering just 65 points, Westholme were a distant second with 305 points and The Redeemer again picking up the bronze medals with 368 points.

“It was great to see this competition growing every year and over 200 children running and enjoying competitive racing,” said Andrew Mercer, School Games Organiser.

“It is a really tough and challenging event and the children should be extremely proud of themselves for making it around the course and showing such character and determination.”

He thanked QEGS for allowing the use of their wonderful facilities, all the teachers who helped marshal the event.

“I would like to say a special thank you to Mrs Campbell from Roe Lee Park primary School and Lisa Kit from Longshaw Primary School who run this competition every year.

“And also congratulate every school that took part in the event, a special congratulations to schools and individuals that won medals and trophies “ “We look forward to seeing them all next year.”