FOUR years of hard work has paid off for the Almondsbury Primary School athletics team after they won both the boys and girls competitions at the inaugural Yate International Academy Cross Country League.

They saw off competition from 13 other South Gloucestershire schools in the series run by the Academy, with races in October, May and July, the final of which was held at Yate Outdoor Sports Complex.

However, Almondsbury’s road to success was put in place long before when parents Charlotte Meads and Sally Williams started running training sessions at 8am once a week.

It became so popular that more parents became involved and they put on an extra session a week before school, enjoying success at various competitions.

Six boys and six girls from each school were permitted to run each race of the Cross Country League and Almondsbury finished with the best collective scores, while Thea Clarke and Libby Keel came second and third respectively in the individual girls’ competition, with Jack Broadhurst second and Sam Taylor third in the boys’ competition.

Teacher Caroline Moore said: “It’s wonderful. In many ways it was my dream four years ago.”

“It’s just gone from strength to strength. It started to take off and it’s been brilliant.

“The two parents who ran it are leaving this year so it was a really lovely finale. I’m so proud of them.”