Loreto pupils triumph in athletics

Athletes at Loreto Preparatory School in Altrincham, Cheshire, have triumphed in the individual and team events in the Independent Schools’ Association’s Athletics Championships.

At the head of the pack was fleet-footed national champion Claudia Cowan, 11, who first won the ISA North cross country event, before beating the cream of the country’s top runners in the national final at Rugby.

All-round athlete Claudia, who has previously won two national track titles, has now joined Trafford Athletics Club and has her sights firmly set on running in the Olympics in either 2020 or 2024.

Claudia, also a top swimmer with Stockport Metro, said: “I don’t know which event I like the most. I want to run either 1,500 metres or cross country at the Olympics, but I’d also like to pursue my swimming.”

Claudia was part of the Loreto Preparatory School team, which won the under-11 title at the Northern ISA championships, but was running in Rugby when her team-mates lifted the Trafford Catholic Schools’ title at both under-nine and under-11 level.

Rosemary Hedger, Loreto Preparatory School headmistress, said: “Claudia is clearly an exceptional athlete and we all hope to watch her career develop over the coming years, but we also have tremendous strength in depth as her fellow friends demonstrated in the team championships.”

Loreto is a Catholic grammar school. The school is a designated specialist college for science and mathematics. This means its work in these subject areas has proved to be consistently impressive enough that the Department of Education has promised to support the school in taking this work further.