Sat 10 March 2018, Loughborough The inter counties cross country championship is a prestigious event, bringing together county teams from all over the UK. Teams are selected mostly through the various individual county championships held in January and races are held from the under 13s upwards.
The venue was Prestwold Hall in Loughborough, and with recent poor weather and thawed snow, the courses were soft with a wide cover of slippery mud. There were barely any dry lines for runners to take as the day progressed. The county tent and presentation area resembled a sea of mud with so many people being in the immediate area.
The first race of the day was the U20 men’s race, with Nathan Dunn producing an outstanding performance to claim 2nd place. Having been with the leading group from the early stages, he steadily moved through the field as the race progressed. Although he was unable to catch the race winner, Tom Mortimer, there was a sizeable gap to those behind. Also putting in a strong performance, and continuing a good cross-country season, was Byrom Sowerby finishing in 84th.
Blythe Fourie was 76th in the women’s Under 20 race. In the Under 17 men`s race, over 6k, Matthew Fazakerley was 30th & Ben Preddy finished 74th, whilst Jack Campy was 241st. The Under 15 girls competed over 4k, and Darcey Lonsdale was 117th and Scarlett Sutton 164th and there were 304 finishers.
The Lancashire women`s and men`s teams both recorded very good results and picked up silver medals with six to count for each team. The Lancashire men were only 4 points away from champions Middlesex. Lancashire were the first team home with all of the nine runners allowed in the team. The men`s individual winner was Mahamed Mahamed of Hampshire who finished in 42.23 for the 12k distance and the women`s winner was Phoebe Law of Surrey in 32.51 for the 8k distance. Surrey also won the women`s team championship.