You could not get a better venue for the English National Cross Country Championships than that provided at Harewood House, near Leeds, on Saturday.
With the magnificent Georgian property sitting on top of a hill within the “Capability” Brown designed landscape, cross country runners turned up in their thousands to contest the 143rd championships.
With the sun shining and not a patch of mud to contend with on the firm going, including up and down some tortuous hills, it proved a tough challenge for the hardiest cross country runner.
There were a record number of finishers in both the women’s and men’s events with a total of 1,034 women and 2,006 men.
And the North East can well be satisfied with their haul of medals, winning two golds, one silver and a bronze medal.
The first gold came the way of Wallsend’s Sam Charlton in the Under-17 men’s race whose trip to the championship could not have have been more dramatic after the club bus failed to turn up. He managed to jump into a clubmate’s car and just made it to the start in time.
That did not upset his race plans as he recorded 18.48 for the 8km course to defeat runner-up Will Barnicoat (Aldershot) by nine seconds.
The other gold captured saw Morpeth Harrier Rory Leonard win the Junior Men’s race, with Darlington’s India Pentland claiming silver in the Under-17 women’s (17.57) behind Cumbria’s Olivia Grace Mason (17.55)....