Kicking off with the secondary section in the morning, the day will also include a walk-the-course for young primary students before the 8/9 years boys’ event gets underway around 1pm. 

Eight Primary events will be held over 2km and 3km courses with the first six placegetters in each event qualifying for the state championships at Eastern Creek on July 22. 

Ten zones within North West will be represented in the Primary section, with fields averaging around 55 in each event.

Tamworth zone had cause for celebration in 2015, winning four of the eight team events and gaining a “best-ever” 19 places in the regional team of 48.

This year, Tamworth zone has several athletes well in contention for winning their events, including 11-year-old Adam Williams (Tamworth Public School), 12-year-old Mikaela Bridge (Dungowan Public), 11-year-old Morgan English (Tamworth Public), 12-year-old Hunter Hall (Tamworth South Public), nine-year-old Robert Murphy (Nemingha Public), nine-year-old Saskia Fitzgerald (Nundle Public) and 10-year-old Coben Battle (Westdale Public School). 

Battle hopes to be well in the mix following his impressive PB 9:59 on the tough 2.4km Herb Elliott Circuit at the Marsupial Park on Monday.

Following their zone championships at Barraba, the Tamworth team has held six training sessions leading up to Coolah, with 25 runners taking advantage of the opportunity. 

Through these sessions Currabubula’s Ethan Campbell (12/13B) and Tamworth’s Liam Griffiths (8/9B) have particularly shown improvement.

Schools best represented in the Tamworth zone team of 48 (24 boys-24 girls) are Tamworth South (8), Oxley Vale (6) and Nemingha (6), with 15 schools gaining at least one representative.

With Quirindi’s dual national cross country champion Lacie Quigley progressing to high school, her younger brothers Logan (10) and Luke (11) are expected to be well to the fore in the Quirindi Primary zone team.