The Inter-counties cross country championships were held for the first time at Prestwold Hall, Loughborough last weekend. For the last seven years, they had been at Wollaton Park, Nottingham and before then, there was a run of fixtures at Cofton Park, Birmingham. Athletes are selected to run for their counties with the bulk of the teams being picked from the county championships in January. The races took place over rolling parkland, and although it was dry, the courses soon saw cloying mud make progress quite difficult.
There were a number of runners from Preston Harriers taking part. Nathan Dunn had the standout performance of the day, finishing 7th in under 17 mens race over 6k. The first event was actually the under 20 mens race over 8k. Tiarnan Crorken was 36th in 29.17 and Jake Lonsdale was just behind in 29.25. Chris Durney was the final Lancashire team counter in 60th.
Tom Barnes and Ethan Warren finished together in the under 13 boys race in 53rd and 54th places. Nichola Jackson was 51st and 3rd Lancashire counter in the senior ladies race of 8k. For the under 15 boys Benjamin Preddy had a superb run for 20th place with Lancashire in 5th place.
For the under 13 girls event, covering the same 3k as the under 13 boys, Scarlett Sutton was 68th. In the under 17 women`s race, over 5k, Blythe Fourie was 69th, Eleanor Ward 81st, Alice Miller 186th & Sophie Rotherham 213th. Darcey Lonsdale was the highest Lancashire team counter in the under 15 girls race – 70th from 295 finishers. Daniel Bebbington was the only Harrier who ran in the senior men`s raced, covering the longest distance of the day at 12k in the last race. He was 3rd team counter and Lancashire finished 7th.