Sat 6 Jan 2018, Blackburn
The Lancashire cross country championships once again took place at Witton Park, Blackburn. On a sunny but cold day, the stand-out performance was a brilliant win for Daniel Bebbington in the senior men`s race. The race distance of about 9.8k saw the runners climb the “saucer hill” four times, and a group of five broke away on the second lap. That group more or less stayed together until the final push down the hill on the final lap and three runners were now in contention as they reached level ground. An exciting finish saw Bebbington take first in 31.01 and beat Ben Fish of Blackburn into 2nd place by six seconds. Gary Priestley of Horwich, a runner up on five previous occasions, was 3rd. Nathan Dunn was 5th and first under 20 in 31.24. Both Dunn and Bebbington will now go on to represent Lancashire in the Inter Counties cross country championships at Prestwold Hall, Loughborough on the 10th March.
The U15 girls race also saw Harriers athletes win selection for Lancashire, runners having to be in the first six places for automatic picks; Darcey Lonsdale was 2nd behind Olivia Leigh of Chorley and Scarlett Sutton was 3rd. With Emily Mayson 11th and Annabel Duffy 14th, the girls recorded a team win too. Faye Houghton was 18th & Scarlett Allison 39th. The only other team success and Lancashire selection too, was in the U17 men`s race over 5.5k. Kian Davis was 2nd and Benjamin Preddy 3rd. Matthew Fazackerley finished 6th and as a result, the team took first place from Liverpool Pembroke Sefton.
There were a number of individual Lancashire medals won in the various age categories in the senior races. Alan Appleby was 2nd vet 70, Marian Hesketh was 1st LVet 60, Sue Wickham was 2nd LVet 55 and Judith Deakin was 1st LVet 70.