Superb Scarlet finishes third at English National Championships

This year's English National Cross Country Championships took place at the historic Parliament Hill Fields in London as Lancaster and Morecambe's Scarlet Dale toed the line with 150 girls in the Junior women's race.
Scarlet Dale.Scarlet Dale.
Scarlet Dale.

Harriet Knowles-Jones (Warrington) set the pace and was joined by Niamh Brown (Aldershot, Farnham & District) but in third place from the gun and ahead of the rest of the field sat Scarlet, racing confidently over the hilly course.

During the second lap Knowles-Jones pushed on and as Brown started to fade Scarlet made progress on the final descent, finishing a mere five seconds behind the silver medal position.

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This will be Scarlet’s final season training with the club’s middle-distance coach Colin Gemson before she moves to Utah University, USA on a Sports Scholarship in the autumn.

During her time at Lancaster and Morecambe AC, Scarlet has progressed from a 12 year old finishing, 260th in her first major cross country, to her medal at Parliament Hill.

This year she was also selected for her first international cross country in Venta de Banos, Spain, where she took the silver medal in the junior race.

Sacrlet’s greatest strength has, however, has been in mountain running where she has won numerous England and Great Britain vests.

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In addition to dominating domestic competition in 2017 she finished sixth in the European Junior Mountain Championships and then went on to finish seventh in the World Junior Mountain Championships.

Another up and coming runner who has an exciting future is Tobias Swarbrick.

Tobias represented Lancaster and Morecambe AC in the U13 boys’ national race and with 570 finishers, his 18th position was exceptional.