THE HEAT IS ON

THE COUNTRY’S TOP RUNNERS PUT IN SOME HOT PERFORMANCES AT A COLD SEFTON PARK ON SATURDAY

REPORT: PAUL HALFORD PICTURES: MARK SHEARMAN

THE INTER-COUNTIES and National might be where the titles are handed out but this event is now arguably the biggest one on the UK cross-country calendar.

Especially with the World Cross becoming biennial, more athletes are focusing on the European event these days, meaning these trials attract many of the UK’s top athletes.

Andy Butchart cuts loose in the senior men’s race at a chilly Sefton Park

While this year’s championships enjoyed the best senior men’s line-up for several years and good quality across the board, it also had quantity.

Entries were at record levels for every race, boosted as always by the incorporation of local league races.

The European Cross Country Championships is always a medal-fest for British athletes, but it’s the senior men’s category that has been one of the least successful in recent years.

However, with four Rio Olympians taking all the guaranteed places via Saturday’s race, all the talk at a chilly Sefton Park was regarding whether winner Andy Butchart could lead them to team gold in Chia, Italy.

The thick fog that refused to budge all morning finally lifted for the last race on the programme at just gone 2pm, allowing spectators to see the majestic sight of Butchart running away from a top field and then lapping league runners as if they were standing still.

Conditions will be very different for the team in the Sardinian coastal town – temperatures last Saturday were, at 17°C, around 10 times higher than they were in Liverpool – but GB will be hoping some of the performances can be replicated.

Aldershot, Farnham & District took the wins in both the men’s and women’s trial races to represent Britain at the European Champion Clubs Cup, to be held in Portugal on February 5. Their respective teams outscored Central AC and Swansea Harriers, the representatives from Scotland and Wales respectively.

Earlier, a minute’s silence was held in tribute to AFD’s Lucy Pygott and Stacey Burrows, the young athletes who were killed when hit by a car when out running last month.

The under-15 girls begin their race in the thick fog that hampered spectators’ view

SENIOR MEN

IN POWERING away from the strongest men’s field at these European Cross trials for several years, Butchart showed the sort of form which took him to sixth over 5000m at the Olympics this year.

He covered the fast 9.8km course, which was firmer than usual, in 28:37, crossing the line eight seconds ahead of fellow Scot Callum Hawkins.

Eventual winner Andrew Butchart (1009) keeps an eye on leader Callum Hawkins

Behind Hawkins, who was ninth in the marathon at the Olympics, two of Britain’s representatives in the 10,000m in Rio, Andrew Vernon and Ross Millington, were next across the line, securing the automatic places in the team for Chia.

In the final race of the day, the two Scots began moving away on the first lap en route to forming such a big lead that, were it not for the fact that the heavy morning fog had just finally lifted, they would have been out of sight of the chasing Ross Millington, Ben Connor, Dewi Griffiths, Jonathan Taylor, Vernon and Adam Hickey.

Vernon, who had won the opening leg of the Cross Challenge in Milton Keynes, was surprisingly down in sixth for most of the race but finished strongly on the third and final lap and closed the gap to Hawkins to just 16 seconds by the end.

It was two years ago in this race that Butchart elevated himself to become among the country’s top cross-country runners. Then he finished second in losing a close race with Hawkins. Since then and particularly in the past 12 months, he has improved still further. His 13:08.61 was a Scottish record which took him to sixth in the Olympic final.

The only other European to make the final was Mo Farah and the Olympic champion will not be in Chia. The Scot, who had just before Liverpool returned from altitude training in Font Romeu, is the favourite for gold in the view of many.

Andy Vernon: strong finish for third

“The conditions suit me, being cold and really hard underfoot,” said Butchart, who can expect similar in Chia. “It would have been totally different if it had been really muddy and wet and slushy so I’ve been lucky with the weather. I was happy to pull off the win – I’ve not won here before and was second a couple of years ago.

“It’s nice to get the win over Callum because he’s a phenomenal, phenomenal athlete and it’s nice running against these guys. It’s great having four Olympians in this race – that’s massive and it just shows how important this race is. Hopefully the Olympians of the future will stay true to where they come from and keep racing the races they did when they were younger.”

Hawkins will be hoping to end his great year on a high in Chia after his top-10 finish on the roads in Brazil following a PB of 2:10:52 in London.

However, Hawkins, who had also just come back from Font Romeu, although he was not training with Butchart, was a little disappointed with his run in Liverpool, saying: “I didn’t have the gears I wanted. I held him for most of it. I maybe tried to play it too smart.”

Adam Hickey: seventh place

Of the course, he added: “It was all right, but I’ve not had a muddy cross for a long time so it was a bit tough underfoot at times. It was a quality field. Probably the best we’ve had in years. We’re going into the Europeans with probably the strongest men’s team we’ve had in a while so it should be really good.”

Andrew Butchart and Callum Hawkins sealed a Scottish one-two in Liverpool

As for his individual medal prospects, he said: “We’ll have to see, it’s always tough. There’s so many competitors in Europe and you don’t know who’s going to turn up and the course could be completely different. I’ve just got to go out there and put my name out there and hope it works out.”