The 26th English Junior Cross-Country Championship took place at Parliament Hill Fields and over 200 runners took part in dry conditions.
At the end of the first lap Inter-County champion Dennis Coates (Middlesbrough & Cleveland Harriers) had established a 15 yard lead from Barry Smith (Thurrock Harriers), Southern champion Neil Coupland (Southampton & Eastleigh AC) and Peter Carton (Belgrave Harriers), who were clustered together. Then there was a 10 yard gap to a second group consisting of Mike Kearns (Birmingham University AC), Nick Jeffrey (Borough Road College), Tony Staynings (Westbury Harriers), Julian Goater (Shaftesbury Harriers), Martin Dell (Leeds City AC), David Lowes (Gateshead Harriers), David Tierney (Small Heath Harriers) and Kevin Carroll (Liverpool Pembroke Harriers). On the second lap Coupland passed Coates and made his bid for the individual title. Coupland went on to win by 8 seconds from Coates in 30:21 with Barry Smith third.
Neil Coupland told David Cocksedge at Athletics Weekly: "I was only really worried about Coates, I thought I could beat everyone else. I took the lead just after the first lap because he suddenly came back to me without any extra effort, and I realised I was moving faster, so I pushed ahead. He hung on, but I felt I had something in hand, so I didn't worry."
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