England Teams travelled to Rouken Glen Park near Glasgow for the Home Countries international. The event this year was the finale to the Cross Country season and on sunny day the competition was keen. England scored Teams wins in three of the four races but lost out to Scotland in the Senior Men’s race which really cheered the hosts.
The first race saw the Junior Women in action, with Grace Nicholls (Tonbridge AC) taking 2nd place in 18m 54s, Gemma Kersey(Basildon AC) placed 5th in 19m 05s, Nicole Roberts (Birchfield H) 6th in 19m 13s and Jess Chen (C of Portsmouth AC) 8th in 19m 40s. With this scoring England won the team race but only on count back.
The Junior Men however dominated their event with Charlie Maclean (Bristol & West AC) taking victory in 22m 31s while team mates Thomas Frith (Southend AC) came home 3rd, 13 seconds down and Daniel Woodgate (Luton AC) 4th another 5 seconds back. Jason Prickett (Invicta East Kent AC) completed the quartet with 7th in 23m 01s with England clear winners in the Team event.
The Senior Women were also dominant in their race, Lauren Deadman (Havering mayesbrookAC) the clear winner in 25m 24s. Third home was Rebekah Randell (Bristol & West AC) with a time of 25m 50s while Stacy Johnson (Cannock & Staffs AC) placed 4th in 25m 54s, again England were Team winners scoring 8 points.
Unfortunately the Men couldn’t make it 4 out of 4 as Scotland beat them in the Team event 18 points to 22 with Derek Hawkins winning the individual race in 27m 28s. England’s Andy Nixon (Stockport H) came home 5th in 28m04s while Peter Huck (Barrow & Furness AC) was right behind in 28m 17s. Late replacement Paul Whittaker (Chelmsford AC) took 11th in 28m 48s while Dean Lacey had an off day coming home 19th in 29m 27s.
Scottish Athletics put on a good show and next year the event will be in Wales. Full results can be found at
