Seven island cross-country runners, six from Manx Harriers and one from Northern AC, travelled to London for the weekend’s English National Championships.

Held on a very muddy course at Parliament Hill, conditions were extremely testing with the course getting progressively heavier as the day went on.

Seamus Hall finished in a terrific 58th place out of 318 runners in the under-13 boys race, which is the highest placing ever achieved by a runner from the Isle of Man in that age group.

Manx Harriers team-mate Max Hammal ran an equally fine race to place 65th out of 343 in the under-15 boys’ race, and that also compares very favourably with historical results as only Andrew Newton (61st in 2004) and David Mullarkey (64th in 2015) have finished higher in this category.

Next up was Laura Dickinson (Manx Harriers) in the senior women’s race which had close to 1,000 competitors. She finished in a very good 244th place.

Laura made her debut in the National on the same course as a first-year Under 13 in 2012, and the only National she has missed since then was last year’s one which was postponed to September. This was the fifth time she has competed at Parliament Hill.

Sam Perry (Northern AC) achieved the highest placing of the day by the Manx contingent with an excellent 32nd in the under-20 men’s race over 10 kilometres, which for a middle-distance specialist was a fine effort over a long, tough course.

The Senior Men’s race had close to 2,000 competitors over a distance of 12 kilometres and, as it was the final race of the day, it had the worst underfoot conditions.

Three Manx Harriers runners battled away with Stephen Garrett 850th, Jamie Hayes 1213th and Paul Rodgers 1254th.

DAVID GRIFFITHS