The England teams faced very strong opposition from a host of African runners at the Cross Internacional de Italica over the weekend.

The ECCA President Richard Inchley reported that it may well be January, but in Seville the senior runners caught the unseasonal for us “heat of the day”.

In the Senior Men’s race it was Ugandan, Joshua Cheptegei that took the individual honours and English athletes tested themselves against many of the best African runners, in the hottest part of the day. In the end Patrick Dever took 14th, Mahamed Mahamed 15th and Alex Teuten (suffering from blisters) placed 25th.

Patrick Dever and Mahamed Mahamed in action

The England Women also had strong African opposition with Agnes Jebet Tirop of Kenya coming home first. For England, Verity Ockenden finished 8th, Charlotte Christensen 14th and Faye Fullerton 19th. All ran extremely well on a dry hard and testing course.

Seb Coe with Senior Women and their manager, Sue Lamb

Earlier in the day the Under 20 Women’s team finished 1,2,3,4 with Hannah Hobbs 1st, Grace Brock 2nd, Ella McNiven 3rd and Chloe Sharp 4th – they dominated their race well in front of the others.

Under 20 Women lead their Race

The Under 20 men were almost as dominant with Tom Mortimer 2nd, Alfie Manthorpe 3rd, Ricky Lukatome 4th while Ben Davis finished 5th.

Under 20 Men Tom Mortimer and Ben Davis

All in all an excellent experience coupled with some great racing.

Ian Byett