HARRIET Knowles-Jones opened the British Athletics Cross Country Challenge season with a second-place finish at Tear Drop Lakes in Milton Keynes on Saturday.

The Warrington Athletics Club runner, who finished fourth in the World Youth Games 1500m this summer, lost out to European winner Bobby Clay in the under 20s women's event.

The pair were together for the first of the two laps but Clay pulled away, finishing 30 seconds ahead of Knowles-Jones, who clocked 17mins 12secs.

In the under 15s boys’ race, Sam Evans ran well to finish in fifth place recording 15mins 39secs.

Meanwhile, 16 runners travelled to St Helens' Sherdley Park for the second Manchester Area Cross Country League, with Jack Stubbings taking victory.

The under 17s runner clocked 22mins 29secs for first place, with teammates Luke Gamble and Sam Rostron finishing fifth and eighth respectively to also bag team first.

Daniel Fox came in 13th.

In the under 11s, Molly Wormald led home the girls in eighth place in 9mins 46secs, backed up by Maisie Bell in 13th place in 10mins 13secs and Eva Ferris 17th in 10mins 21secs for a team second with 38 points.

Also running well were Lily Briscoe and Jasmine Jones in 30th and 31st places in 10mins 51secs and 10mins 54secs respectively. In the boys’ race, Rhys Hopkins ran well to place 15th recording 9mins 33secs.

In the under 13s age group Rebecca Nixon was the only girl running and came 21st in 13mins 53secs.

For the boys, Lucas Hayes picked up a podium place with a good run to finish in third place in 11mins 54secs. Isaaq Ataullah and Joe Roberts backed Lucas up in 12th and 13th places in 12mins 24secs and 12mins 27secs respectively to take second place in the team event with 22 points.

In the under 15s boys’ race Jordan Jones finished third in 15mins 34secs and was followed in by Joe Buckley in ninth place in 16mins 07secs.

The day was completed by the senior/junior men’s race where under 20s Chris Fance finished 75th overall and 14th in the under 20s recording 37mins 02secs.

Warrington AC competed at the National Cross Country Relays at Mansfield a week earlier.

The star performance came in the junior women’s race where on the first stage Knowles-Jones took the field apart to come in 23 seconds ahead with a time of 7mins 56.15secs for the 2.5k course, a time which remained unbeaten for the rest of the race.

In the junior men’s race Matt Wigelsworth took the first stage running well to hand over in 37th place in 9mins 16.95secs.

On the second stage Dan Evans dropped to 40th with 9mins 58.25secs and on the third stage Robert Dykes brought the team up to 39th in 10mins 23.05secs for a total time of 29mins 38.25secs.

In the under 17s boys’ race Jack Stubbings handed over in 26th place in 9mins 38.30secs. Luke Gamble clocked 10mins 18.25secs for 28th and Sam Rostron who, struggling through ill health, dropped back to 33rd in 10mins 53.15secs for a total time of 30mins 49.70secs.