KENDAL AAC's Rebecca Robinson was the club's only senior woman representative at the Northern Cross Country Championships at Heaton Park in Manchester.

She had been going well and was hoping for a slightly better finishing position than last year's fourth.

Hallamshire's Hattie Dean set a very fast pace from the start and soon had a 100-metre gap and did not look like being caught.

Robinson, back in eighth at the end of the first lap, kept pulling through the field and with 600m to go was in third, but fast-finishing M. McDonnell, from Chester-le-Street, just passed her to push Robinson into fourth.

Dean was a convincing winner in 24.44, ahead of V.Gill in second (25.49), M. McDonnell third (26.19) and Robinson fourth (26.22).

As usual, the Under-20 men's race was very fast. And with Kendal's Alasdair Russell missing six weeks' quality training, he found himself off the pace at the end of the first lap, back in 30th but making a move forward.

He came into the finishing field with about 800m to go in 28th and a final push to the finish gave him 24th, six places better than last year.

Kieran Alderson has just moved into this age group and was not sure what to expect. About 400m into the race he was blocked on a very muddy corner and was only 10/15 places from the back.

He worked hard on the remainder of the first lap and pulled up to about 50th and looked comfortable moving through the field. With 600m to go and very tired but in a very much better position, he bashed on to the finish to be a very satisfying 42nd.

A depleted Kendal team of senior men was led home by Paul Singleton 206th, Pete Acland was 376th and new member Steve Burrowes 487th.

Under-13 boy Michael Hoyle was the only Kendal athlete in this age group.

He was hoping to have a good run after his disappointing race at the schools the previous week. He set about the task well and had a good strong run to finish 36th in 11min 02sec.