Claire Martin continued her impressive cross country season in the second of this season's UK Cross Challenge held at Liverpool's Sefton Park on Saturday. The race attracted the best British runners as this event incorporated the GB Trials for the six strong team for European Cross Country Championships to be held in Italy on December 10th.

Telford AC's Claire Martin who had finished 7th in the first Uk Challenge race held at Sennelly's Park, Birmingham in October was delighted to be included on the UK Athletics pre event press release and web site as one of the leading contenders. She has really made a name for herself in recent months as one of the best cross country and road runners in the country.

On a generally flat, but very muddy Sefton Park 6.5 kilometre course Claire up in the top 10 in a field full of GB and England internationals. Commonwealth 5000m silver medallist Jo Pavey who found the muddy conditions very difficult still had enough class to lead the field home winning in 23.28 with felicity Milton of Durham University was second in 23.53 with Bristol's Kate Reed, 16th in last years European Cross Country Championships 3rd in 23.54. Liz Yelling, the winner of the first UKA Challenge in Birmingham and Commonwealth marathon bronze medallist was 4th in 23.59. Claire finished a superb 10th in 24.49, just 40 seconds away from a place in the GB team. This probably one of the highest quality races of the winter and CLaire was ahead of GB internationals Tara Krzywicki and Victoria Wilkinson. But another eye catching performance must surely impress the England selectors who will be putting teams together for other international events this winter.

This performance puts Claire equal 3rd in the overall Uk Challenge after 2 races with 91 points sharing 3rd place with Kendall's Gemma Phillips whilst the lead is shared by Hatti Dean and Susan Partridge with 97 pts. Claire plans to run 2 of the next three races in the Series at Cardiff and Nottingham hoping for a high overall placing.

She now focusses on the next Midland Womens League race to be held at Droitwich where the Telford AC women's team are looking to consolidate their position at the top of the league and defend their league title.

Paul Sanderson