England team of teens for Seville

England are sending a team of eight teenagers to gain international experience at the Cross Internationcional de Italica in Seville, Spain, on Sunday 20 January.

The junior men are: Simon Horsfield (East Cheshire Harriers and Tameside AC), Ross Millington (Stockport Harriers), Lenny Shail (Coventry Godiva Harriers) and James Wilkinson (Leeds City AC).

Junior women: Blue Haywood (Lincoln Wellington AC), Lily Partridge (Aldershot, Farnham and District AC), Bessie Rollins (Kettering Town Harriers) and Lorna Russell (Winchester and District A.C.)

Simultaneously, Tom Humphries (Cannock and Stafford AC), who led home the England team in the senior men’s race at last weekend’s IAAF Cross Country Permit meeting in Elgoibar, Spain, races for the Midlands in an Inter-Regional match incorporated into the Cardiff X Challenge in Blackwater Park on Sunday. Among his rivals are experienced internationals Alan Buckley (Gateshead Harriers), Kevin Toher (Newquay and Par AC) and Rob Whalley (Bristol and West AC), quality Under 23s Rob Bugden (Bristol and West AC) and Tom Minshull (Trafford AC) plus the gold and silver medal winners from last year’s English National Junior Men’s race, Kevin Deighton (Bridlington RR) and Tom Russell (Stroud and District AC).

The senior women’s Inter-Regional match pits the South’s Charlotte Coffey, Kate Goodhead, Claire Hallissey (all Bristol and West AC), Rachel Felton (Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers) and Sophie Morris (Windsor, Slough, Eton and Hounslow AC) against the Midlands’ Nicola Bamford (Notts AC), Tina Brown (Coventry Godiva Harriers), Jane and Juliet Potter (Charnwood AC) and the North of England’s Carly Needham (Rochdale Harriers), Sonia Thomas (Sale Harriers Manchester), Victoria Wilkinson (Bingley Harriers) and Andrea Woodvine (Aldershot, Farnham and District AC).

The large entry for the age group races includes the reigning English National Under 13 and Under 15 Champions Tom Purnell (Stroud and District AC) and Nathan Young (Mendip AC).

Artical by Trevor Frecknall