BURY Athletic Boys made the trip to Mansfield last Saturday to compete against the best in the country in the English National Cross Country championships.

The course was a fast one being mainly flat and through a wooded area. Surprisingly, it was reasonably firm under foot. Bury struggled to enter one team of three members in each age group.

First to compete were the under-15 boys over a 2km course, with Luke Harreld running the first leg. Luke was fighting a chest infection and sniffed and coughed his way round the course -- he was happy to complete it in 34th position.

Luke Rothwell was the next Bury runner and he fought hard against a strong field to finish in 38th place.

The last runner was Gary Stanton who had the best run for the lads, with a fast start, to pull back to 32nd place out of 60 national teams.

In the under-13 boys, the first runner Jonathan Berry had a storming run to complete the course in 13th place, handing over to Jordan Harreld. Jordan found the going hard but kept in contention to finis in a group of runners in 21st place.

Last runner Scott McManus had an excellent run, with the fastest team leg to make up 11 places and bring the lads home in 10th place out of 46 teams.

The under-17 course was increased to 3km and all the legs were fast ones. Ian Roberts set off first for Bury and ran an inspired leg to finish in 47th place.

Karl Tomany took over from Ian and from the start, showed he meant business. Karl took nine places and finished strongly in 36th position. Last leg runner Chris Busailia put his all into the race, barely able to stand at the end. The team came home in 29th position.

All the boys in each group showed grit and determination against this quality field, to gain the team positions that they did on the day.