Last Saturday, saw LBAC's club president representing England in the British & Irish Cross Country International in Perry Park in Birmingham. Gail Duckworth has run for the country on a few occasions now, but is particularly pleased with her current form as she is at the top end of her age category this season.

The event is organised by the British Masters Athletic Federation and sees teams from the four home countries, plus Ireland represented by their top age group athletes over various distances. In Gail's race, a team of three were required to score points for each country over a 6K course and the ladies had the worst of the weather, with the heavens opening during their second lap. The horrendous conditions made the event all the more challenging and when Gail came home 3rd for England in 6th place overall, the team were celebrating victory. However, the different age groups all run together and what they hadn't realised was that the cheeky Irish had 1st, 4th & 5th places which gave them a win by one point in the team calculations.

Despite the slight disappointment of not quite getting the team prize Gail was pleased with her run as she also managed to beat all of the athletes in the age group which she enters next year, suggesting she may be even nearer to the front. Gail's quote of; "I ran quite well, for me" doesn't really do justice to another excellent performance from the club's lone international athlete. The team finiahed off their day in the Birmingham rain by having a gala dinner at the National Motorcycle Museum where all of the awards were dispensed and Gail already started dreaming of next year!