Tom Lancashire underlined his current strong Cross Country form with one of his best ever championship finishes on the US college circuit. The 21 year-old Bolton Harrier is in his fourth year as track and field scholarship student at Florida State University and last weekend produced an excellent 5th place in the South Regional Championships in Tennessee. Following home a strong quartet of Kenyan athletes, Lancashire achieved the rare distinction of beating his FSU teammate and reigning Regional Champion, Scotsman Andrew Lemoncello, the top-ranked runner in the UK over 10,000m. The duo led their college to an unexpected victory in the team race.

Lancashire is better known for his exploits on the track, where is he is widely regarded as one of the UK’s most promising middle-distance prospects. His huge improvements of the last few years have understandably overshadowed his Cross Country achievements. However he does have previous experience as a junior international on the country, representing Great Britain in the 2003 World Cross Country Championships, This weekend sees the climax of the collegiate Cross Country season, with the Nationals being held at Terre Haute, Indiana. Lancashire will hope to improve on his 73rd place of last year in an ultra-competitive race which brings together the winning teams of all the regional Championships, and also features the best individual runners from the smaller teams in the US College scene.

Meanwhile, on the home front, Lancashire’s former FSU teammate Vicky Gill dominated the Mid Lancs Cross Country League at Burnley. The 26 year-old British international was running for her home club Chorley Harriers, but also represents Bolton Harriers on the track. Victory was never in doubt from the early stages of the race, and she stretched the winning margin to 70 seconds by the end of the 6km course. After suffering indifferent form in the summer after returning from Florida, Gill burst back onto the UK Cross Country scene with an impressive 6th place behind European Champion Hayley Yelling and a host of seasoned internationals in the recent UK Cross Challenge event in Birmingham. After a GB squad training weekend her main target is the trial for the European Cross Country Championships, which takes place in Liverpool’s Sefton Park on November 25th. While not a strong favourite for selection to the GB team, a further improvement on her good run at Birmingham would give Gill a real chance of a trip to Italy in December.

By Andy Parker