INTO the top three we go!

Our countdown, just like 2017, is drawing to a conclusion and we have properly reached the sharp end now.

In at number three, it's a second entry for Harriet Knowles-Jones and it charters a long-overdue victory for the Warrington Athletics Club star...

3: THIRD TIME LUCKY FOR HARRIET:

IN two previous trips to the European Athletics Cross Country Championships, Harriet Knowles-Jones had won a silver and a bronze in the women’s under 20s race.

This time, however, she was determined things were going to be different, with her fire-fuelled by a performance she was critical of at the European under 20s Championships on the track earlier in the year, although she did win 1500m bronze.

On a freezing December morning in Samorin, Slovakia, Warrington Athletics Club’s young star stormed to the front of the field and cantered to a superlative gold medal.

The 11-second gap to her nearest rival proved just how dominant Knowles-Jones was as she ended her final year as a junior athlete in perfect fashion.