Leeds City continue their domination with men’s cross country trophy

In the men’s race Keith Gerrard (Newham and Essex) beat defending champion Steve Vernon (Stockport) with Leeds City duo James Wilkinson and James Walsh never far off the pace.

The two Leeds stars came in virtually together in fifth and sixth places to give Leeds a perfect start. A good run by Simon Deakin, 24th, kept the momentum going and the counting six was competed by solid performances from Carl Smith (39th), Alan Buckley (69th) and Martin Gostling (76th) to seal a comfortable win over Tipton.

It was the sixth win in 10 years for Leeds during which they have always finished in the top three with Deakin a medallist every time.

To underline their supremacy, Leeds also won the trophy with nine runners to count, Martin Hilton (107th), Darran Bilton (113th) and Mike Burrett (127th) being the other three runners.

The women’s race was won by Gemma Steel (Charnwood), very much the form athlete of the winter, who beat Steph Twell (Aldershot). Hallamshire’s Hatti Dean could reasonably have expected to match strides with those two but she fell away from the pace to finish fifth. Just one place behind came her team-mate, Northern champion Lizzie Adams and this pair gave Hallamshire a tremendous start. A good run by Nicola Squires, 35th, kept them on track before the all important fourth counter, Claire Robson, arrived in 110th place to give the Sheffield club a narrow victory over Bristol. Ruth Proctor (119th) was not far behind for Hallamshire.

Skyrac runner Jordan Bransberg was in superb form at the English Junior Indoor Championships held at Birmingham over the weekend, romping to victory in the Under-20 800m.

Scott Lincoln (City of York) was a convincing winner of the Under-20 shot with 16.81.