After seven consecutive years at Prestwold Hall, Loughborough, the 2024 UK Inter-Counties Cross Country Championships on Saturday 9 March were moved 15 miles to another popular former location – Wollaton Hall, Nottingham – due to a clash with a motoring event at the Leicestershire venue.

Wollaton Park last held this annual battle of the counties in 2009 and the rolling parkland that surrounds Nottingham Natural History and Industrial Museum housed within the 1580s-built Elizabethan country house was in fine condition despite waterlogging fears that led to a ban on parking within the park for this prestigious event.

The UK Counties Athletics Union (CAU) was formed in 1926 after a meeting in the offices of the AAA in 1925 had been attended by 10 representatives of the home counties, plus Norfolk and Suffolk. The first Inter-Counties Championship was a cross country race at Beaconsfield on 3 April 1926, and the event quickly became a major winter test for athletes who represent their counties with enormous pride. 

There was a 10-race programme for all ages producing a total of 2,603 finishers, with typically a maximum of 300 runners in each race whom their county associations had chosen. There was added spice as the event also held the British Athletics Cross Challenge Final and there was selection for the World Cross Country Championships in Belgrade, Serbia on 30 March 2024 at stake.

The senior men's field was fired up for their 10K race as Calum Johnson (North East) powered to victory by seven seconds to book his trip to Belgrade later this month. Tom Evans (Leicestershire & Rutland) and Scott Sterling (Scotland East) tied on time as they completed the podium, separated by the finish judges. Sterling secured the British Athletics Cross Challenge series overall title. North East won the team gold medals from Yorkshire and Northern Ireland.

The senior women's race saw Abbie Donnelly (Lincolnshire) in dominant form over 8K to win by 18 seconds – adding the 2024 Cross Challenge individual title and a ticket on the plane for the World Champs. Lauren McNeil (Derbyshire) and Alice Goodall (Scotland East) were the runners-up. Surrey was the top county ahead of Yorkshire and Kent.

In the final medal tally across all 10 races, Surrey was the most successful county with four victories. Scotland West enjoyed three wins, with one set of gold medals apiece for Essex, North East, and Scotland East. 

Full results by FR Systems and previous reports are at the runABC race listing here   

Photo showing Abbie Donnelly (#759) leading the women's race by Mark Hookway