ENGLAND CLEAN SWEEP THE HOME COUNTRIES INTERNATIONAL SENIOR MEN’S RACE

On a beautiful sunny autumnal day with temperatures reaching around 16/17 deg C it was hard to believe this was November 12th and well into the cross country season.
Tear Drop Lakes Milton Keynes was the venue for this Home Countries International (HCI) combined with round 2 of the UK Cross Challenge.
A strong start by all 4 England runners saw them quickly work there way to the front of the firm and grassy 3 lap 9,500 metres course. It soon became Evident as early as the start of lap 2 that although the team prize was obviously going to England there was also no notable individual challenge coming from the main entry or other countries. So who would prevail out of the 4 England runners, Mahamed Mahamed, Zak Mahamed, Hugo Milner and Alex George.
Having been locked together for the early part of the race the Mahamed brothers broke away by some 15 – 20 metres part way through lap 2 with Milner and George following with similar gaps between them. Younger brother Zak appeared to be giving as good as he got in the battle with his older brother and they were locked together as they disappeared into the 3rd and final lap. Likewise Milner (having his first outing this winter) had what appeared an unassailable lead on George ( who was making his England Senior cross country debut having previously ran as a junior)
Entering into the finishing part of the race Mahamed had broken away from Zak to claim victory and with the expectation of Milner coming in 3rd there was a surprise in that George had really dug in well on the 2nd half of the final lap and court and passed Milner to earn 3rd, Milner completing the clean sweep in 4th.
All athletes move on to the UK Cross Country Trial in Liverpool in 2 weeks time all satisfied that there form is good and they are confident of making the team or being very close to it. For Mahamed brothers and George it was the same order as the Cardiff race 4 weeks ago, for Milner it was his first outing and he should see the usual significant improvement that comes after the 1st race of the season.