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    03

    Jul 2024

    Last Updated: 03/07/2024
    Community
    Community

    Ripon student completes three peaks ultramarathon

    by Tim Flanagan

    | 03 Jul, 2024
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    ripon-2nd-july-2024-sophie-sterne
    Sophie Sterne (foreground) pictured after completing the Whernside leg of the ultra-marathon

    Ripon student Sophie Sterne, along with six fellow students completed the Yorkshire Three Peaks Challenge to raise more than £3,000 for the charity Save the Children.

    The 17-year-old, who lives in Thornborough and attends Sedbergh School, covered a 53-kilometre ultramarathon distance with her team-mates on Friday.

    Their arduous eight-hour run in changeable weather conditions, included a 723-metre climb up Ingleborough, followed by the 694 metres peak of Pen-y-Ghent and then the 736 metres of Whernside, before a 15 kilometre final leg to Sedbergh School.

    On arrival, they were greeted with loud cheers from teachers and students, including her younger brother Tom, who also attends the school.

    Sophie’s mother, Liz, who was present to see her and her team-mates home, told the Stray Ferret:

    I was totally in awe of them and it was an emotional moment for me, thinking about what they had achieved in support of such a good cause. They ran through mist, rain and sunshine.

    Sophie has always been a keen runner and she took part in the famous Sedbergh School 10-mile Wilson Run earlier this year.

    During the half-term holiday, she spent her time running around the Dales doing 30 kilometre training runs, with me following behind her in my car!