For the first time for several years the Northern Champs ventured beyond Yorkshire and Lancashire to take place in County Durham. The course was undulating and soft, but far from brutal with no mountains and limited thick mud. After their excellent performance in the Yorkshires there were high hopes for our women and, despite the unfortunate illness related absence of Yas, they didn’t let us down. Emma led the team admirably with a terrific top 30 finish, while Suzie and Jo had a cracking fight over 2nd place for the club leading to both finishing in the top 50. Sarah and Amicia had an even closer battle to complete the scoring team, with the former just taking it, both finishing just outside the top 100. All of this led to an excellent team result of 8th, not a million miles off 4th. Results as follows:
Senior Women, 8k approx:
1st Lauren McNeil (Hallamshire) 28m 35s
29th Emma Clayton 32m 24s
48th Suzie Reid 34m 19s
50th Jo Buckley 34m 32s
105th Sarah Pickering 38m 25s
106th Amicia Lee 38m 32s
236 finishers in all.

Teams:
1st Leeds 28
2nd Hallamshire 67
3rd Sale 144
8th Bingley 232

The men didn’t quite manage to get a scoring team out, but there were still some good performances from the men who did run. First home was Nick, our most prolific Cross Country runner of the winter, with another solid performance, but not far behind was the fast improving Stephen. Paul had a successful seasonal debut, just breaking the hour, while Emyr was our final finisher a few minutes later. Results as follows:

Senior Men, 12k approx:
1st Calum Johnson (Gateshead) 37m 55s
273rd Nick Chapman 53m 51s
310th Stephen Fry 56m 19s
356th Paul Allwood 59m 09s
421st Emyr Rees 67m 20s
439 finishers in all.

If you want more information about Cross Country events and activity then get in touch with your Cross Country Team Managers :
Paul Lemmon paul.lemmon62@gmail.com and
Stephanie Robson stephie145@gmail.com or your
or your Cross Country Representative (the Reps represent the interest of their Discipline at the Committee and work with the Team Managers to promote their Discipline)
Stephen Fry stephenfry@sky.com
They would love to hear from you :-)