LAST Saturday saw the English National Cross Country Championships, held at Parliament Hill, London.

Four of the young athletes competed at National level for the first time.

Rhys Hopkins competed in the under 13 boys 3km race, finishing in 208th in a field of 570.

Sam Mawdsley also went in this race, finishing 563rd.

Representing the under 15 boys, Joseph Byrne and Michael Duffy ran in their first National.

Joseph finished 285th whilst Michael finished in 495th.

While also taking on the under 15 boys 4.5km race was Charlie Roberts (263rd) and Michael Brussels (328th).

The boys team finished 46th overall.

Later in the 12km Senior Men’s race eight of St Helens Sutton A.C.’s athletes took part in a field of 2328 runners. First home was Matt Crehan in 110th, next back were Jake Healy (1014th) closely followed by John Appleton (1016th).

Fourth in for the team was Marc Crehan (1282nd) followed by Barry Graney (1633rd), and rounding out the counting six was Ray Vose (2026th).

And making up the team of eight were the returning from injury Ian White (2228th) and Andy O’Conor (2282nd).

Sunday 25th saw Gemma Connolly smash her course record at the Oulton Half Marathon, running an impressive 79 minutes, over a tough six-lap course.

Meanwhile closer to home, and in the slightly warmer space of Manchester’s Sports City Indoor track, a number of athletes took track.

In the senior 60 metre sprints Daniel Lamb ran a time of 7.33, Darren Scott set a SB with 7.57 (as well as a SB in the 200m with 24.28), and Karen Marsh, back after surgery last year ran a fantastic personal best of 9.98.

In the U15s event, Adam Loughran ran a personal best of 8.32, and James Gladman in the senior 200 metres ran a stadium best of 21.59.