TALENTED Bathurst athlete Hope Coombes came within a matter of seconds of national qualification with a strong performance at the recent NSW PSSA Cross Country Carnival at Eastern Creek.

The Assumption School student contested the under 10s race in atrocious conditions – running the same day Bathurst was blanketed in snow – and was attempting to finish in the top six. That would have earned her a journey to nationals.

Coombes, representing Polding, went close as she came across the line in 12th place in a division which had 79 competitors.

It was a familiar two kilometre course for Coombes, who qualified for the NSW PSSA carnival with a comfortable start-to-finish win at the Catholic Schools Cross Country Championship at Eastern Creek earlier in the year.

However, the combination of the cold and rainy conditions and a higher level of competition made the state competition much tougher for Coombes.

Though missing out on advancing to the next level, the Bathurst junior impressed against the best that NSW had to offer.

Coombes entered the final stretch of the race inside the top 10, but couldn’t quite hold onto the spot.

Imogen Stewart was dominant in winning in a time of seven minutes and 39 seconds, but the race for the remainder of the national spots was intense.

Coombes just lost touch with a small group who broke away to cover positions two through to seven.

A small 14-second gap followed to a sizeable chasing group that Coombes was a part of.

Coombes finished in a time of 8:44 and was the first of the six Polding contenders to cross the line, helping her team to fifth place in the age division.

“Throughout it, it was really muddy and windy. It was a pretty hard run,” Coombes said.

“I had a bit of a flu before ... and it was probably wasn’t [as strong a run as last race].”

Hope’s mother Di Coombes was proud of her daughter’s efforts and said she was even lucky to race given the conditions.

“The roads were shut in the morning, so a couple of them [competitors] didn’t get through. It was freezing with mud and rain,” she said.

“She’d had a head cold in the week before, and was a bit sick before she went down, so it was a great effort.

“She was fifth coming up the last straight for home. The girl who won outright won by about 100 metres, but almost everyone else was single file coming through.”