The training partners both secured their spots on the plane to the European Cross Country Championships, while there were also impressive wins from Cari Hughes, Innes FitzGerald and Michael Clark at Sefton Park.
Every year the Liverpool Cross Challenge creates different headlines.
From Mo Farah’s victory in 2005 to Andy Vernon and Jess Warner-Judd winning on multiple occasions, the annual event has always attracted some of the UK’s finest distance runners.
Since taking on the role as the trials for the European Cross Country Championships from Margate in 2003, the significance of winning at Sefton Park has only intensified, with it becoming one of the most important meets on the domestic cross-country calendar.
Head-to-head battles on the grass and mud are not uncommon at Sefton Park – 2014 witnessed a memorable contest between Scots Andrew Butchart and Callum Hawkins – and this year saw a similarly enthralling contest between training partners Scott Beattie and Rory Leonard (November 22).
Both Beattie and Leonard know each other well. Not only are they coached by Andy Hobdell at HOKA-sponsored Team Makou but the pair also represent Morpeth Harriers AC.
Off the back of Team Makou’s third-ever training camp in Font Romeu last month – AW spent time with the group to learn more about the group and their operation – the pair arrived in Liverpool with one aim. To secure their spots on the plane to next month’s Euro Cross in Lagoa, Portugal (December 14).
Leonard was fifth at last year’s Liverpool’s Cross Challenge and given a discretionary spot – the top four in the seniors and under-23s automatically qualify – for Antalya, where he finished as the highest Brit with ninth place in Turkey.
Beattie meanwhile had extra motivation after missing out on last year’s Euro Cross because his passport’s expiry date didn’t meet Turkish border rules. After failing to get an emergency passport, it meant that Beattie couldn’t travel to Antalya for the championships.
With that motivation at the back of his head, Beattie once again excelled on this year’s muddy Sefton Park course. The Brit had finished third in similarly arduous conditions at the last edition, so such a clinical run – only Leonard stayed with his pace in the latter stages – was not a surprise.
With such a big field, the start was slow and the leading pack all bunched up. As the kilometres ticked over though, Beattie and Leonard broke away and by the half-way stage had created a small gap to the rest of their competitors.
They never looked back. Through the twists and turns, it soon became a two-horse race between the training partners. Although Leonard led at points in the race, Beattie’s kick was stronger in the final few kilometres and he clocked 23:50 over the 8km course, with Leonard not far behind in 24:04. Richard Slade (24:20) and Jacob Cann (24:22), who both impressed at the Cardiff Cross Challenge, also secured automatic selection for Portugal.
“It’s nice to get first and second,” Beattie told AW. “It took me a while to get out of that pack at the start and get back to Rory. He put in a great hard surge. We already had a gap to the rest of the field so we didn’t want to let anyone else back into it.
Leonard, who broke Mo Farah’s British 10km record by six seconds with 27:38 in Valencia back in January, added: “I think we both know we’re two of the best distance runners in the UK. We work hard and, importantly, we don’t get our confidence from just training but knowing what we’re doing is right.
“So you get to an event like today, where we hadn’t done any cross-country races recently for example. But we knew we’d still get out and have a good chance of finishing 1-2. Once I opened the gap and Scott got back to me, I felt how strong he was, so I just had to do what I needed to consolidate that second place.”
Cari Hughes had missed Cardiff Cross Challenge earlier this month due to sickness but produced a masterful performance to edge out Poppy Tank by just two seconds at Sefton Park.
With the absence of defending champion Kate Axford, the senior women’s race was quite open on paper and Hughes – second to Axford at last year’s Liverpool Cross Challenge – grasped the opportunity.
Similarly to the senior men, there was a large leading pack in the opening stages of the 8km race, with the likes of Hughes, Tank, Izzy Fry, Phoebe Anderson, Abbie Donnelly and Verity Ockenden breaking away around before the half-way point.
The latter stages became a test of mental fortitude and endurance, so it wasn’t a surprise to see Tank do so well, given the City of Plymouth AC athlete had placed fifth at the Cardiff Cross Challenge.
Hughes however produced the strongest kick and crossed the finish line first, with a look of disbelief in Liverpool.
“I’m honestly in shock as I didn’t know what to expect from myself,” Hughes told AW. “I wasn’t 100% well before Cardiff so I had to miss that and take some time to recover. I got a good week of training last week so I was ready to go today. I was a bit unsure of myself so I’m delighted.
“I just had to settle in when it came to the first lap. By the third lap I was at the front and I thought ‘why not?’. I’m always the one following the move so I tried to make it. I wasn’t able to pull away however so I just had to save some energy for the kick.
“I had a really bad race in Antalya last year [Hughes was 37th] because I overcooked myself the two weeks after Liverpool. So me and my coach [Andrew Walling] will make a new plan this time round to try and get myself in better shape.”
Matthew Ramsden produced a fine performance to triumph in the the under-23 men’s race, winning by nine seconds to both Joel Doye and Sam Hodgson in Liverpool.
Will Barnicoat, the double reigning European under-23 cross-country champion, was on the entry list but made a late decision to not race, providing others opportunities.
A total of eight guys went under 17 minutes over the 5.6km course but Ramsden, who represents Blackburn Harriers AC, had the best kick of the lot to take the win.
Megan Harris, who placed ninth in the 1500m final at this year’s UK Athletics Championships, took the victory in the under-23 women’s race by six seconds to Emily Parker.
The pair were the only two athletes to go under 19 minutes on the 5.6km Sefton Park course and were well ahead to the rest of the field, clocking 18:46 and 18:52 respectively.
Innes FitzGerald will once again head to the European Cross Country Championships as the heavy favourite in the women’s under-20 race after dominating domestically at Sefton Park.
The Exeter-based athlete, off the back of her 50-second victory in the junior race at the Cardiff Cross Challenge, won comprehensively in Liverpool, with the margin this time being 59 seconds.
FitzGerald is hoping to become a triple European under-20 champion in Portugal, before she moves up to the under-23 age category next year.
“I think something about my style of running likes the mud,” FitzGerald told AW. “Driving up yesterday it was so cold so I thought I might be in hats and gloves! I’m glad it was mud and not ice.
“There’s a lot of pressure on me to defend my title in Portugal but it’s my last race as an under-20 so I just want to go out there and give it my all and have fun. It’ll be a brilliant race as there are so many good girls.”
One of the best finishes of the day came in the men’s under 20 race where Michael Clark took a narrow victory over both William Rabjohns and Alex Lennon.
Just three seconds separated the trio and it was anyone’s call who would win as they made it down the muddy home straight at Sefton Park.
Clark, who represents City of Norwich AC, had the best kick though and clocked 13:13 over the 4.4km course, with Rabjohns and Lennon running 13:15 and 13:18 respectively.
The under-17 athletes also lined up on the same start line as the under-20s and both victories were pretty dominant. Beth Lewis ran 15:07 over 4km and won by an enormous margin of 25 seconds, while Rory Barclay-Watt clocked 13:38 over 4km.
In the under-15 races, Kara Gorman starred in the girls’ field and took the win by nine seconds to Heidi Woodley, clocking 10:34 over 3km. The boys’ winner was Theo Creed who, running the same distance as the girls, secured a time of 9:33, beating Byron Roberts by just one second.
The day started with the under-11 and under-13 races, with a strong number of entries in all the junior fields. Sebastian Buxton and Mari Coltherd won easily in the under-11 races, while Madison Kindler and Zac Munn triumphed in the under-13 category.
