Parliament Hill, Hampstead Heath in London hosted the seventy-seventh Senior Women's National Cross-Country Championships. The race was sponsored by Saucony and the 8km course consisted of one small lap and one large lap. 1329 entries were received for the women's race and 8385 for the event.
Four-time champion Liz Yelling (Bedford & County AC) was expecting her first child and so an open race was expected, area champions were Katherine Sparke (Woodford Green AC with Essex Ladies) - Southern, Jane Potter (Charnwood AC) - Midland and the previous year's runner-up Gemma Miles (Kendall AAC) - Northern.
Debbie Walters (Birchfield Harriers) was the first runner up the famous initial hill but couldn't last the pace and finished 24th. Nicola Sykes (Bedford & County AC) and Lauren Deadman (Havering AC) made the early running on the first lap. Sarah Tunstall (Kendall AAC) subsequently took the lead with Sykes, Justina Heslop (Clapham Chaser), Deadman and Hatti Dean (Hallamshire Harriers) in close order.
Tunstall had a 10-metre lead, Dean moved up to second with Heslop third followed by Sonia Samuels (Sale Harriers) and Jane Potter. At the top of the course Dean closed the gap and then opened up a lead on Tunstall to come home winner by 50 metres. Tunstall kept chasing and was rewarded with a silver medal and Sonia Samuels nee Thomas came through for third.
27-year-old Hatti Dean told Jason Henderson at Athletics Weekly: "I'm really pleased but Sarah gave me a hard race and I was so dead, especially on the wiggly bit, as I haven't run here for so long, I went past and was through and I thought I'd opened up a gap, but she came back to me and she looked like she had a lot more left in her and so I really pushed for the rest of the race. But the second half wasn't as bad as the first half."
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