Roundhay Park on Saturday 24/02/1990 (Youths)

Roundhay Park in Leeds hosted the forty-fifth Youth's English Cross-Country Championships. Provincial Insurance Company continued their sponsorship of the race. The course was four miles long and consisted of one loop and one lap plus the start and finish sections. This was the third time the National had been held at Roundhay Park, the two previous staging's being in 1978 and 1982.

As the race got underway the early leaders were John Wild (Sale Harriers), Southern champion Spencer Barden (GEC Avionics) and Kevin Toher (Newquay & Par AC).

At the two-mile mark Barden, Wild, David Thompson (Oldham & Royton Harriers & AC) and Ceri Rees (Elswick Harriers) had pulled away. On the fast stretch leading to 'Hill 60' Rees made a push to the front and led by 20 yards going into the hill. Thompson made his bid for glory and began to catch Rees, but Rees powered down the finishing straight to win by four seconds from Thompson with Toher edging Wild for third.

Rees told Athletics Weekly: "I was feeling pretty much 100 per cent up the hill, but someone said to cut back my stride to conserve effort up the hill, I knew he'd [Thompson] be knackered at the top of the hill. I was pinching myself at the finish. I knew I was fit, but I did not know I was that fit."

John Wild lead Sale Harriers to the team title as they beat Woodford Green AC by 63 points with Portsmouth AC third. Other counters for Sale were Paul Martin (33rd), Elton Davies (55th) and Ian Bertenshaw (78th).