A couple of days late on this report, but at the January 7th Hampshire County Cross-Country Championships, Lee Merrien (ASICS) and Louise Damen (adidas) took the men’s and women’s titles, respectively, with John Beattie (adidas) runner-up to Lee by just a handful of seconds. John reports: “Louise won comfortably, and on the men’s side Lee just outsprinted me in the last few hundred yards to win by 4 seconds. Was quite an undulating course and I tried constantly for 12k to drop him at every available chance, though he just wouldn’t go away and held on to find more of a sprint than me in the end! Both of us ran well and were 90 secs clear of 3rd which was encouraging. Nice to have my confidence restored somewhat and start 2012 much better than most of what went on in 2011.”

Click here for a short video report on the day’s racing, courtesy of channelonline.tv