Ian Byett of the English Cross Country Association has filed this report:
The English Cross Country Association has staged the National Cross Country Championships in all parts of the Country however the more popular venues have been in Central England from Leeds down through Birmingham to London and this years Saucony sponsored Championships proved not to be an exception. The chance to run over a traditionally great course at Roundhay Park, Leeds was to good to miss and record numbers competed last Saturday at this venue. The bad weather in the weeks leading up to the event meant the Course was very muddy and wet and caused the organisers plenty of problems as vehicles were banned from the grass and they probably would have been stuck if they had been allowed on.

Neverless athletes and supporters turned up in there thousands to such an extent that a record number of runners competed. Not counting those who didn't manage to complete there race a total of 4303 competitors crossed the finish line across the 10 races staged, this beat last years record by 225 and considerably beat the number of 3714 when the Championships were last held in Leeds in 2004. Records of this nature have been kept since 2003 when the Boys under 13 and under 15 events were added to make the up the 10 Championships now competed for.

In individual events there were also very good fields with the under 13 Boys number of 374 finishers being a record and the under 15 Boys number of 387 being second only to last years 398. The first joint Men's and Women's event was first held in 1995 at Luton when there was 8 Championships held and records go back to then and it was good to see a several of the Girls events do well as the under 13s was the best since 1995 just 12 short of the record. The under 15s with 360 was the best since 1998, while the under 17 Women with 189 was just 10 short of a record. In the older male age groups the under 17 Men saw 308 finish the the best since 1996 when Newark was the venue while the Junior Men had 204 finishers the best since 1995 when 211 finished at Luton.

Despite thoughts that the Senior Men's race attracts less numbers, 1430 completed the 12K at Roundhay which rates second highest in the last 10 years while the Senior Women had 543 go past the Finish Arch again the second highest this time over the last 14 years. So this series of Championships started in 1876 when the whole of the Men's field went off course and the event was declared void has stood the test time and continues to flourish.