Silverstream School pupils are on their marks and set to go for the Taieri school sports cross-country event next week.
Event co-ordinator Angela Hawthorne said pupils at Elmgrove, Silverstream and East Taieri schools had been training for the past several weeks for the event, which would be held at Tirohanga Camp, Wyllies Crossing, on Tuesday at 1pm.
Mrs Hawthorne said up to 350 pupils from the three Taieri primary schools would compete.
The event would be broken into three age groups and distances.
These were year 4 (1km), year 5 (1.5km) and year 6 (2km).
The young runners would be expected to run, walk and sometimes scramble along a pre-determined circuit through farmland that had ''some pretty major hills, lots of mud and sometimes water''.
''Tirohanga is very challenging for the kids, and it's a really competitive event,'' Mrs Hawthorne said.
The top 10 runners in each age group will be selected to represent the Taieri at the Otago cross-country at Kaikorai Valley College on September 5.
''We have never been lucky enough to have a pupil get a top place in the Otago cross-country.
''Here's hoping this year will be different.''
• If weather prevents the event from going ahead on Tuesday, it will be postponed until Thursday, August 14.
