IVYBRIDGE Community College athlete Will Battershill will be looking for more success this weekend when he leads Devon’s challenge at the English Schools’ Cross Country Championships in Blackburn.

Battershill is the English and British Schools’ intermediate boys’ steeplechase champion. He also took fifth place in last year’s cross country event and represented England at the Home International race.

However, the Erme Valley Harrier has moved up an age group and so will be competing against athletes a year or two older than himself.

His main competition in the senior boys’ race at Witton Park on Saturday is expected to come from Hampshire’s Mahamed Mahamed, South Yorkshire’s James Gormley and Great Manchester’s Zak Miller.

Battershill will be joined in Devon’s senior boys’ team by Tavistock School’s Will Dax and Josh Blake and his Ivybridge team-mate Owen Parkin.

Plymouth will also be strongly represented in the senior girls’ category, where Plymouth College’s Poppy Tank and Emily Ackford and Plymstock’s Victoria Weir are Devon’s top three runners.

Ivybridge’s Nathan Brown and Devonport High School’s Tom Blackford will compete in the intermediate boys’ race.

View full Devon team here http://www.devonschoolsathletics.org/assets/2015_ESAA_XCTeam.pdf