Debut is a Lotto fun for Billington (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Debut is a Lotto fun for Billington

11:40am Thursday 18th February 2010 in

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KARL Billington was thrilled with his third place on his England debut in the Iris Lotto Cross Cup meeting at Hannut, Belgium which was held in very cold and snowy conditions.

Running in the Junior Men’s Race for the U20s, the England juniors scored a 1-2-3 clean sweep which was helped by team tactics.

There was a full programme of races – 17 in all – and the England squad had noticed that most of the runners were starting too quickly.

They decided to be more circumspect, and over the five laps and 6,600 metres of their race they worked their way through before hitting the front.

At only 17, the Blackburn Harrier was the youngest in the entire England team, yet easily held his own. He was timed at 21:28 behind team-mates Ronnie Sparke 21:13, and Ben Norris 21:24 while the final England counter was Josh Norman in sixth.

The England U20 women enjoyed an equally successful day with the top three places in their race while Hannah Bateson from Lancaster was fifth.

The only downside to the weekend was that they were travelling by Eurostar and were caught up in the aftermath of a serious rail crash in Belgium, taking 13 hours to get home.