England's first ever joint National Cross-Country Championships took place at Wigmore Valley Park in Luton. Over 9,000 runners had entered across all categories and this was the fiftieth running of the Youth's race. This was the first time the park had hosted the National and to ensure enough car parking was available one of the runways at Luton Airport was used.
A quartet pulled away on the initial loop, Southern champion Alistair Moses (Reigate Priory (Sovereign) AC), Yacin Yusef (Croydon Harriers), Mike East (Portsmouth AC) and Andrew Graffin. On the full lap, Graffin allowed Yusef and Moses to pull clear, and Hunter passed East, Dale Canning (Stockport Harriers) and Daniel Getliffe (Bracknell AC). In the second half of the race Graffin and Moses battled for the title as Yosef dropped back and eventually retired. Graffin finished the stronger to take the individual title by three seconds from Moses and Hunter mounted a strong finish for third.
Graffin told Athletics Weekly: "I'm very pleased. I wanted that so much, but I thought I'd lost it at one stage. My dad always tells me not to let a gap open up, but I did. When I hit the last bend with 200m to go I knew I'd got it."
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