By PETRA BARNBY
Halesworth's Ellie Sprake will represent Great Britain in the World Schools Cross Country Championships on April 10.
The 16-year-old will be flying to Rimini in Northern Italy to take part in the 5km mixed-terrain run with hundreds of other competitors from around the world.
Her coach of four years, Steve Benson, knows it will be a great experience for Ellie. "She will run as well as she can. It will be fantastic experience. In the next two years I expect she will be taking part in the European Cross Country Championships and representing Great Britain in the World Cross Country Championships in the Junior Women's section. She is a very intelligent, articulate, unassuming and extremely ambitious person. She is also a very pleasant young lady."
Ellie, who attends Ipswich High School for Girls, trains daily and proved she was serious about running when she had to choose between her horse or running. She is thrilled to have been selected to run for England after being involved in running for just three years.
"I am really excited about going to Italy and very proud to be
representing England," she said. "In my training group there are many
athletes who have competed for GB, all of whom are a great inspiration and
there is a great atmosphere within the group.
"I'm really thrilled with how my running is going at the moment although
of course hopefully there will be a lot more to come in the months after
Italy."
Ellie is upbeat and positive about every aspect of running competitively, even when it comes to training in bad weather. "I have no problems with staying focused whatever the weather. I really enjoy all my training and we have a great training group. We all get on really well so training is always great. Steve is a great coach and is always very encouraging, at both races and in training."
On Saturday Ellie ran in the UK Inter Counties Cross Country Championships at Wollaton Park in Nottingham where she came second in the 5km U17 event which she ran in 18 minutes and 44 seconds.
By courtesy of the Bungay Gazette
Ellie Sprake is the daughter of Gail and Michael Sprake. Ellie is actually running for England, not Britain [or Great Britain] as given in this article.