The St Columba’s College cross country team continued their dominant form this season with a comfortable and commanding win at the regional round of the national cup.

The event sees the best schools from the surrounding counties battle it out for one of only three spots to qualify for the national championships in three weeks in Newquay. Having won comfortably in their county round, the boys were confident they could book a place to the national finals.

Groom led the field home in first, breaking away from the field with 1.5km of the 4km to go to stamp his authority on the field. Behind him, Edwards battled it out for sixth place against his older counterparts, whilst race of the day went to Loveman who started conservatively near the back before storming his way through the field over the second half of the course to finish in 12th - his highest finish thus far and a fine run from the regional biathlon champion.

Loveman was closely followed by a returning Fulton in 16th to have all four scorers across the line in the top 16. It left the team with an overall score of 35, almost half of the second place teams score.

Fifth man and new squad member Bromfield, going from strength to strength with each race, still finished highly enough - should one of the boys ahead have dropped out, the Columbans still would have qualified for the final.

A school spokesman said: “A special thanks from Mr Murphy to all the parents and family that came to support - they helped out and roared the boys to victory. The boys and parents now look forward to the long trip to Newquay and the hope to gain national medals.”