A number of Winchester & District Athletic Club's aspiring endurance athletes made the lengthy trip to Sefton Park, Liverpool recently to compete in the second leg of the biggest UK series of races on the cross country calendar.

This event had the added spice of incorporating the trials for the GB team at the European XC Championships to be staged near Milan, Italy on December 10.

The younger age groups provided great opportunity for runners to sample the thrills and atmosphere of competing at the same level as the older and more experienced athletes and in the U15 girls age group Louisa Warwick continued her run of eye catching results in placing 15th of the 92 finishers in a time of 10-58. Max Kiralyfi couldn't quite match this performance in the Junior Men's' U17 category but at this level of competition still ran well to place 39th in 18-44 of over 100 starters.

In the first of the selection races, the U17 and U20 ladies ran together which made for an extremely competitive field. India Lee with a time of 20-06 placed 28th at U20 level, a position matched by Sarah Burgin with her time of 20-40 in the U17 category.

The final race of the day included 3 more of Winchester's athletes who were all seeking to impress the selectors at U23 level, for which GB are also to send a team to Italy.

James Ellis and Jon Beattie were very much in the shake up to make the team. Running within the main senior men's race, it was difficult at times to gauge positions, but it was extremely close and once the mud had settled after the frantic scrap to the line, it was disappointment on this occasion as James' time of 32-53 for 27th overall, was a tantalising 6 seconds shy of a place in the team. Jon had run with James for much of the race but could not go with James' final surge, but was still rewarded with 33rd spot and 33-10. Steve Phillips was our 3rd U23 and again ran excellently to place 74th with a time of 34-58 amongst a field of over 400 finishers.