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King Henry VIII Relay Race Archive
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In 1972 King Henry VIII School started a 6-leg Cross-country race in the War Memorial Park. Since then 169 different schools have raced, many bringing more than one team. Over the years many successful boys have taken part including Seb Coe’s. The girl’s race started in 2000.
To give a flavour of life in 1972, here is a picture of the Harrow County School for Boys – some of whom ran in our first race.
Here is a quotation from someone who was present at that first race, and ran in later years:
“…At the end of January we made our longest journey ever for the first King Henry VIII Relay in Coventry. It attracted the best schools from all over the country including Scotland and Northern Ireland. It became the top schools event in the UK, apart from the English Schools, and in later years occasionally teams came from abroad including the USA… despite the rainy day we all enjoyed competing. We finished 12th out of 32 teams.”
Quotation & photo by Dennis Orme
The photo below is from 1976, and give a snap-shot of the race from that era; in many ways it hasn’t changed that much!
