FOUR club athletes were on school or college duty for their county at the Inter Counties Schools Cross Country

Championships held at Kirby Stephen on Saturday February 3rd. The four were all representing County Durham.

They were all hoping to finished in the first eight in their respective age groups and go forward to represent their County at the National Championships held at Chelmsford on March 10th.

The first to go were the senior boys on an excellent Cross Country course set out by the Cumbrian officials,

Paul Best kept his position well in the first four on the two large laps to finish in fourth position and 2nd counter for the Durham team in a time of 22.12, club mate Stephen Brown had to work hard to maintain his 8th counter position on the first lap and unfortunately tired on the second lap to finish as 9th counter just thirteen seconds out, of a team place, the winner was Ross Kemp - not the former Eastender - of County Durham in a tine of 21.19.

Matthew Lomax was next to go in the Junior Boys event with one large lap and one small lap , Matthew although not having the best of runs, managed to keep in a top six position and finished as 4th counter in 6th position in a time of 12.14, the winner was Mark Zissler of County Durham in a time of 11.36.

The last race of the day was the Inter Girls event of which Natalie Owens represented her county. Natalie not up to scratch on the day still had a decent run to finish as 5th counter and 11th overall in a time of 11.52. The winner was Charlotte Whickham of Northumberland in a time of 10.30.

Paul Best, Matthew Lomax and Natalie Owens go through to the national event next month, but Stephen Brown must wait.

The same day club athletes made a long but very rewarding journey to the Scottish Indoor Championships at the Kelvin Hall Glasgow, the highlights being two gold medals for Ian Davey and Richard Turner plus two bronze medals for Tom Carroll and Victoria Finn.

In the U17s girls 60m, Yasmine Meite just missed out, finishing 4th and Tom Carroll continued his improvement with a desperately close 4th in the 60m final running 7.43 which was nice.

Carroll returned later in the day to grab his 1st major medal with an excellent 3rd in the final of the 200m clocking 23.68s, Adam Rogers ran a sound 25.70s to finish 5th in his head, but the star of the U17s was Richard Turner who controlled his heat and final excellently to win gold in the 400m with a time of 53.13s.

But the star of the U17s was Richard Turner