Mountain running Senior Home International: preview
On Sunday 19 September we see the return of the Home International fixture, this year being held at Sedbergh, Cumbria, which is a familiar venue for most mountain runners. The host British Mountain Running Championships race also incorporates the Trial for the World Championships which were due to be held on the 11-14 November in Thailand, though this has now been pushed back until February next year - even so, the racing should be intense and hotly contended.
The team was selected from an English Fell Championship race called Alderman’s Ascent in July.
The winner of the men’s race that day was Joe Dugdale (CFR) who was the European and World Junior Mountain Running Champion in 2019 and is our leading U23 athlete. He will be joined by Bill Cartwright (Matlock) who was 3rd in the trial and is currently leading the English Fell Running Championships. Chris Richards (Helm Hill) who was 4th in the trial is another athlete who has come through the Great Britain and England junior ranks; he recently won the British Fell Running Championship race at Dufton Pike. Daniel Connolly (Mercia) will be making his debut for England on the mountains, having recently represented England on the roads running an impressive 65m 30s at the Larne half marathon. The final member of the men’s team is U23 Chris Law (Holmfirth), an athlete who has also run as a junior for England in the past.
The women's team will be led by Sara Willhoit (Mercia) who was 2nd in the trial and represented Great Britain at the last World Mountain Running Championships held in Argentina in 2019. Joining Sara will be Caroline Lambert (Middlesbrough) who was 4th in the trial and has come through the junior ranks representing England and Great Britain in the past. Also in the team is Nichola Jackson (Keswick), who has already been selected for Great Britain to compete at the longer 40km race at the World Championships in Thailand next year, but drops down in distance for this race. Hannah Russell (Helm Hill) who represented England U23s in 2019 at the Smarna Gora Mountain race in Slovenia, has kept that form going and has now move up into the senior team. Leading this year’s U23s is Eve Pannone (Eden) who recently won the British U23 Championships and represented Great Britain at the last European and World Championships in 2019, Finty Royle (Chorley) who missed out on her final year as a junior had a great run at the trial to be selected as one of our U23 athletes.
This is the 10th running of this event and we’ve had 10 individual winners, on top of that the women have won the team title 8 times and the men 7 times. We hope to be adding to this impressive roll of honour on Sunday.