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ANDY VERNON AND PIPPA WOOLVEN TAKE CROSS CHALLENGE OPENING RACE WINS AHEAD OF THE EUROPEAN TRIALS

REPORT: BEN COLDWELL PICTURES: MARK SHEARMAN

A host of Britain’s top senior cross-country runners were present in the men’s race at the Cross Challenge opener

THE major focus on the domestic cross-country scene shifted from the Mansfield English National Relays to the start of the British Athletics Cross Challenge series in Milton Keynes last Saturday.

Staged two weeks out from the European Cross Country Championships trials in Liverpool, the race on a rain-saturated course around Teardrop Lakes allowed some of Britain’s biggest hitters on the mud to size one another up ahead of the crunch race at Sefton Park.

Under-17 runner Hannah Hobbs wore black and AFD colour ribbons to run

On the day it was Andy Vernon, three months after making his Olympic debut, who looked best placed to make sure he can guarantee himself selection as the 30-year-old put together a smart race to take the first series win of the season, while Pippa Woolven made good on her promising start to the winter with her first Cross Challenge win.

The day also saw athletes, officials and spectators pay their respects to Lucy Pygott and Stacey Burrows, the Aldershot, Farnham & District runners who tragically lost their lives earlier in the week in a car accident (see News, p6-7), with a minute’s silence.

Jonny Taylor (4406) and Ben Connor (4377) stretch their legs at the front of the senior field

SENIOR MEN

MORE than two years away from cross-country running seems to have had little impact on Andy Vernon as the three-time Cross Challenge champion made a winning return to the series with an impressive run, setting himself up well for the European trials in Liverpool.

The Aldershot, Farnham & District runner has had a good start to the winter in 2016 with strong runs in Bedford and Mansfield at both the southern and national relays – sandwiching two good performances in the Great Run series – to precede his triumphant showing in Milton Keynes.

Vernon was joined at the head of the field inside the first kilometre by a handful of runners who will doubtless be hoping to join the Olympian in a British vest in Chia, Italy, at the European Cross Country Championships next month.

The likes of European under-23 cross-country champion Jonny Davies, 2014-15 Cross Challenge winner Adam Hickey and last year’s runner-up, Jonny Taylor, helped in setting the early pace.

Davies, last year’s race winner, began to lose touch with the leaders as a series of sudden, sharp inclines took their toll and it was Derby AC’s Ben Connor who upped the pace just before the halfway point, taking Taylor, Vernon, Hickey and Hallamshire Harriers’ Andy Heyes along with him.

The Derbyshire cross-country champion appeared well-placed to run it home for victory as he, Vernon and Taylor forced their way to the front at the start of the final 3.6km long lap of the lake, but Vernon, the 2014 European 10,000m medallist, was merely biding his time and opted to attack over the last hilly section of the course before emerging from the treeline with 500 metres remaining with a big lead over Connor.