HEREFORD and County Athletics Club's promising young runner Rhys Park underlined his potential with another excellent run in the Saucony English National Cross Country Championships which was held at Herrington Country Park, near Sunderland.

Park, who the previous week had clinched the under-13 boys' cross-country athlete of the season prize in the Gwent league, continued to show excellent form and finished third in the Under-13 Boys' race, only 12 seconds from a gold medal place.

His run made history for the Hereford and County AC as this is the first ever National Cross Country Medal won by the club.

Claire Conway, a Herefordshire based athlete, also competed at the championships for Bristol and West and was part of the gold medal winning team in the Junior Women event.

The event was the biggest stage the Hereford team had competed on and the course was extremely challenging due to the topography of the former colliery site and high winds.

Clara Evans, Grace Hughes and Jade Williams lined up in one of the biggest fields of the day with 440 athletes in the Under-13 Girls race and, after a fiercely fought race, Evans finished 39th, only 30 seconds outside a top 10 finish, Hughes 56th and Williams 162nd.

In the Under-15 Girls, Vanessa Brann finished 44th, while Lizzie Hadley, Sean Reidy, Dan King and John Barns had strong performances in their respective races, finishing just outside the top 150.

Evans, Hughes, Brann and Park will complete the Cross Country season on March 24 with a further trip north to Leeds where they will compete for Herefordshire and Worcestershire Schools hopeful for further success.

The Hereford and County endurance squad will now start training for the impending track season.

Any budding young athletes who would be interested in joining the squad can do so by contacting endurance coach Simon Conway on 07875350297.