Wimbledon Common. We ran superbly this year, manag- ing to win team silver and only being beaten by The Judd School in a huge field of schools. Our second invitational races are the Junior and then Senior Haskell Cup Cross Country Relays hosted by RGS Guildford on Merrow Downs. In the Junior races our A team came second with Caspian Holmes running the fastest leg of the day. Our B and C teams came sixth and eighth, respectively. All of this represents quite a feat when you consider there are over 60 competing schools at the race. In the Senior Haskell Cup, with 34 teams competing, our A team won silver, B team came fifth and our C team fourteenth. Next on our invitational circuit is the Ten Schools Champion- ships hosted by Harrow School. Our Junior and Interme- diate Boys managed to bring home team silver medals, and despite a slightly depleted team, our Seniors still did us proud with a fifth-place finish. To close the invitational season, we again travelled to Harrow, for the Southeast Schools Cross Country Championships. Our teams ran superbly, with Jack McLennan winning his race to bring the Juniors team silver. Our Inters won team gold with Oscar Kinirons (Year 11) winning individual silver and Alex Wilson bronze. In the Senior event we did not have a full team, but Jacob Taylor , our captain, won individual gold in his last ever race for DC, and Alex Jack , our new captain, brought home the bronze medal. We had six Dulwich athletes selected for the London team to go to English Schools Cross Country Championships in Nottingham
The 2nd XV and 3rd XV finished their seasons with well-earned victories at home to St Paul’s, much to the delight of the Year 13s who were playing their final game in the black and blue. Harry Waight ’s consistent play and organisation from fly half meant that he was awarded the 3rd XV player of the season from Mr Roberts. Meanwhile, Toma Cornisteanu-Bailey ’s uncompromising scrummag- ing, powerful ball carrying and nose for the try line meant he was Mr Greenaway’s 2nd XV player of the season. A heartfelt thank you must go to all of the staff (operation- al and teaching), parents and pupils whose hard work and support made such a memorable season possible.
being the school that not only has the most fun, but also somehow ‘simply always gets it right’. British Schoolboys International Ski Racing Championships On 28 January our strongest 16 ski racers travelled to Wengen, Switzerland for the 2023 National Champion- ships . After a day and a half of training, we commenced the racing with Dual Slalom, where two relay teams com- pete on identical side-by-side slalom courses. All four of our teams acquitted themselves admirably, with Dulwich 1 and Dulwich 2 making the quarter final but both missing out to the eventual finalists. Day three saw our boys put together two superb Giant Slalom runs with some outstanding individual skiing, allowing Dulwich 2 to finish the day in seventh place and Dulwich 1 in fourth place. Undoubtedly the highlight of this day was our first ever individual gold medal at these races, with Niccolò Smith (Year 12) winning the U18 GS gold medal. Day four started with an incredibly technical and difficult first slalom run, with over 30 of the 70+ skiers not finish- ing the run. Unfortunately, this did for the combined team result of most teams, including our own. Despite this, most of our racers regrouped for a second run and skied superbly to great times. Alongside the highlight of Niccolò’s gold medal, special mention must also go to Philip Henkell von Ribbentrop (Year 12) who skied all four runs successfully to U18 unregistered combined bronze medal, and also to our first ever U12 racer, Tommy Sabbaghian (Year 7), who finished fourth mini across all disciplines. We finished the camp with the reputation of being the school that not only has the most fun, but also somehow ‘simply always gets it right’
and all three of our Junior, Intermediate and Senior Boys teams won their first-round competitions to progress to the regional final in St Albans. There, both our Senior and Intermediate Boys won their races and qualified for the final in Leeds. Our Junior Boys team narrowly missed the final by one team place, coming fourth in their regional final. They have huge potential, however, with over half the team being Year 7 athletes and thus having another year in the age category. At the final, both of our teams did exceptionally well to finish seventh nationally, with 27 schools in each category. Lent term In the Lent term, our athletes aim to progress from borough, to area, to national championships. We hosted the Southwark Schools Cross Country Championships at Dulwich, giving our Year 7 and 8 athletes a chance to qualify for the Southwark team to run in the London Boroughs Championships. In Junior Boys we came joint second, with Caspian Holmes taking gold. In the Inter- mediate Boys we also came second. I am delighted that Dulwich boys will make up seven out of the 24 athletes in this year’s Southwark team. The London Championships The London Championships are held annually at Worm- wood Scrubs. In the Junior Boys A category, Caspian Holmes (Year 8) again brought home the gold medal, and Jack McLennan and Matthieu Ladure (Year 9), finished in the top 15. We finished second team. In the Junior Boys B race we won the team gold medal with no fewer than five boys finishing in the top 15. In the Intermediate Boys we again took home the team gold medal, with special men- tion to Nate Ground (Year 11), Warren Wilson and Alex Wilson (Year 10) who finished in the top 15. Undoubtedly our highlight was the performance of our Senior Boys, who not only brought home our third team gold medal of the day, but also enjoyed five of the top 12 finishers. Indeed, Jacob Taylor and Joe English (Year 13) won individual gold and silver, respectively. As a result of this success, we had six Dulwich athletes selected for the London team to go to English Schools Cross Country Championships in Nottingham. Running alongside these two pathways, and in both terms, we also race a number of invitational races. The first of these is the King’s Trophy hosted by KCS Wimbledon on
Ski racing Matt Burdekin
Our season always commences with the first of three indoor races in the National Schools Indoor League . With northern schools competing in Manchester, we and other southern schools complete league fixtures at the Snow Centre in Hemel Hempstead, all attempting to make the final where the top schools from both regions come together. In the first two races, our A team skied superb- ly to one silver team medal and one gold team medal. This stands the boys in superb stead going into their last league race in June and hopefully the final after that. It was also pleasing that our B team managed to finish fifth team in the first two league races. Canada Cup From 10 to 20 December, 27 pupils and four members of staff enjoyed a nine-day training and racing camp in Jasper, Canada. With six and a half days’ gate training and two and a half days of racing, the camp is hugely beneficial to our whole ski racing programme, providing our longest continuous block of training and racing on snow. It is also the scene of our annual Dulwich College Curling Championships, this year won by the staff team (of course!) by three ends to two. While in camp, two of our Upper School members also successfully completed their level one Canadian Ski Instructors qualification. Despite being an incredibly tiring and challenging trip, the younger pupils were brave in all they did, and the older members showed superb leadership to take them under their wings. We finished the camp with the reputation of
Cross Country Matt Burdekin
In Michaelmas term, the cross country season is predom- inately centred around the English Schools Cross Country Cup. We host the first round here at Dulwich College
112
113
THE ALLEYNIAN 711
SPORTS
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator