Last Saturday, while most of us were trooping around Watford, Gail Duckworth was over in Dublin waving the English flag in the British & Irish Masters International Cross-country.

The women's event is run all together with the F35's running alongside all the others up to F65 on a 6K course around Santry Park. Each of the home nations selects a team of four in each age group and then there are both individual and team awards presentedin five year age categories.

These days Gail competes in the F55 and seems to be jetting all round Europe representing the country. On this occasion she arrived to find a twisty and muddy course set-up in Santry Park with four 1500m laps to take on! Early in the race Gail was lying in 5^th, out of the sixteen F55's taking part, but by the end of the first lap had managed to work her way through into 2^nd place. From there on, despite the sapping conditions she managed to retain her silver medal position and was over a minute in front of third.

In addition to walking away with a silver individual medal, she was first home for England and lead the English team to victory in the category too so added a gold medal to her collection. Following the days races, which just about managed to stay dry the evening did not manage it, as a few glasses of wine and Guinness helped the Irish dancing go with a swing.