Sunday saw senior, junior and under 17 members of Chelmsford Athletic Club compete in the Essex AAA Cross Country championships at Mistley.

It was a cold clear day over a course that wound its way through areas of woodland and in and out of a series of fields, all of which had a hill to climb, one field even had a herd of cattle.

The Chelmsford senior men, who were defending their title, were thinner on the ground than might have been expected.

When two of the clubs highest placed runners dropped out in the middle stage of the race it looked like the title would be going to another club for the first time in many years but with a total of 114 points from the club's first six runners home, the title was once again retained.

Colchester Harriers finished in second place with 126 points and Woodford Green were third with 186 points.

The club's first runner home was Mark Sanford in fourth place, John Burrell was fifth, Mark Wheelan 10th, Gavin Chatteron 13th, David Tullet 18th and the sixth scorer was Tom Hunton in 64th position. Glen Kent was 92nd, Stephen Williams 131st and Peter Goodfellow was 154th.

In the senior women's race, Tracy Minton was the club's first runner home in 22nd place, Jill Chandler was 38th, Hazel Cybyk 39th, Jenny Granger 53rd and Dot Welch was 62nd.

In the junior women's event, Leah Walland finished in fifth place, which should gain her a place in the Inter-county championships in Nottingham next month.

The under 17 men's team finished in second place with 58 points, just four points behind the winners Thurrock, James Williams was third, David Fewell was 10th, Tristan Windley 18th and Andrew Owen was 27th.

In the under 17 women's event the Chelmsford team finished in third place with 71 points, behind Mayesbrook and Newham.

Anna Ferguson was 12th, Louise Fletcher, running for the club for the first time was 19th, Emily Newlyn was 24th and Marney Lamb was 26th.

l The next club event will be the fourth Essex League meeting of the season on Sunday at Gloucester Park, Basildon, with the first race starting at 12 noon.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.