HARTFORD has been chosen as the venue for the 2001 Cheshire Cross Country Championships.

Around 500 athletes are set to take part in the race on Sunday, January 7, which is a qualifying event for the English Inter Counties Championships.

It will be the first time Hartford Campus has hosted the county's top cross country run in almost 20 years.

"It's going to be a big occasion," said Vale Royal Athletics Club coach Sean McGrath. "In the juniors, the top six will run for Cheshire in the Inter Counties in Nottingham, which is a massive national event."

Sean is encouraging athletes to come along to mid-week training with Vale Royal if they are interested in making a name for themselves on home soil, because all runners must be affiliated to a club.

But it's not that the host club is short of numbers.

"People who want to take part need to be in the club and although we've got the biggest membership in Cheshire by far, if we sit on our laurels we will go backwards," said Sean.

"When we held the year 7 schools cross country a couple of months ago I wanted to chat to the girl who won to get her into the club, but it turned out that she comes down every week.

"I felt a bit guilty because I used to know all the kids, but it just shows how many we have here now. At training we have about 150, and it's not the same people each week."

Training for seniors is at Rudheath Leisure Centre on Tuesday nights, juniors at Woodford Lodge High School on Thursdays.

PETE Maher fought his way through the driving rain to be Vale Royal AC's best placed runner at the Llandudno 10-mile race, completing the course in 57 mins 21 secs.

Terry Powell, and Martin and Jane Rowe, were the club's other finishers.