Old hand Hayley Mottram led the way when five students at Thundersley's SEEVIC College won through to the national finals of the British Colleges Cross-Country Championships.

Hayley, 18, a first year HND sports studies student, won the women's race convincingly when the regional qualifiers were held at the College of West Anglia.

SEEVIC have an excellent reputation in cross-country with the male team qualifying last year and three students representing the female regional squad.

Nap hand - the five SEEVIC students who won through to the British Colleges Cross-Country Championships (left to right): Hayley Mottram, Chris Butterworth, Darshan Singh, Katie Gormley and Toni Watson Picture: TERENCE BUNCH

This year Hayley put all her hard training into gaining an excellent win over a particularly tough course.

All the other SEEVIC girls did extremely well while two more qualified with Hayley for the regional team at the national finals, being staged at Loughborough in April.

Toni Watson (BTEC national sports science) was fourth and Katie Gormley (A levels) was eighth from a 25-strong field. Both are aged 17.

The boys' team also did extremely well with Darshan Singh, 16, having an excellent race to finish third and Christopher Butterworth (A levels) coming sixth to both make the eastern region team.

Published Wednesday, January 22, 2003

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