Cofton Park on Saturday 19/02/2005 12 Km (Senior Men)
The one hundred and eighteenth English National Cross-Country Championships took place at Cofton Park in Birmingham. This was the first time for 33 years that Birmingham had hosted the race. The course was 12km of undulating parkland and was expected to be a good test for cross-country runners.
Glynn Tromans (Coventry Godiva Harriers) was hot favourite for the race despite have a troublesome heel injury at the start of the cross-country season, the 2004 inter-counties champion was thought to be the man to beat. Area champions included Huw Lobb (Bedford & County AC) who was the Southern title holder, Kevin Farrow (Derby AC) was the Northern champion and James Walsh (Leamington C & AC) was Midland winner beating former National champion Matt Smith (Tipton Harriers).
Belgrave Harriers were convincing champions the previous year and were hoping to hold on to their team title. Midland champions Tipton Harriers were hoping Matt Smith could lead them to gold and Northern title holders Leeds City AC were also hoping to feature.
Temperature at the start of the men's race was a mere 4C and the sky held very few clouds as the starter got the 1300+ runners underway. Tromans had no trouble getting in front of all the other runners as he ran to victory in 37:53, 33 seconds ahead of runner-up Rob Whalley (Bristol & West AC). Mark Miles (Belgrave Harriers) from nearby Bromsgrove was third.
35-year-old Tromans, the winner in 2000 and 2004, joins a group of ten athletes who have won the National three or more times, namely Frank Aaron, Dave Clarke, Basil Heatley, Jack Holden, Dave Lewis, Richard Nerurkar, Edward Parry, Gordon Pirie Alfred Shrubb and Percy Stenning.
Glynn Tromans (Coventry Godiva Harriers) on his way to his third win
The team race was won by Salford Harriers who beat Leeds City AC by 44 points, Andi Jones led the team home in 13th and said "It got pretty tough out there, and I even considered dropping out at one point. But I knew the others would have dragged me back into the race and in the end, I was pleased with my placing and over the moon about the team win."
Thomas Abyu (left) celebrates the team win with the Frank Wynne trophy
Salford Harriers were celebrating their 120th anniversary and had not won the National for 106 years. Other counters for Salford were Thomas Abyu (15th), Billy Burns (19th), John Brown (21st), Nick Jones (51st) and Martin Cryer (69th). The Tipton Harriers team picked up bronze medals.