Wollaton Park on Saturday 25/02/2017 8 Km (Senior Ladies)

The eighty-fifth Senior Women's Cross-Country Championships took place at Wollaton Park in Nottingham, the park last hosted the National in 2014.

Lily Partridge (Aldershot, Farnham & District AC) the defending champion was recovering from the Seville marathon and did not enter. Area champions Juliet Potter (Charnwood AC) - Midlands, Claire Duck (Leeds City AC) - Northern and Emily Hosker-Thornhill (Aldershot, Farnham & District AC) - Southern were expected to place highly along with Jess Judd (Chelmsford AC).

As the large field began to spread out Claire Duck found herself doing the front-running with Judd and Louise Small (Aldershot, Farnham & District AC).

At the start of the last lap a quartet had got away namely Duck, Judd, Small and Emily Hosker-Thornhill. Small and Judd moved away from Duck and Emily Hosker-Thornhill as the second lap unfolded and going up the last hill before the turn to the finish the pair were locked together in a fascinating duel. On the downhill run to the finish Judd just edged ahead to win by only 3 seconds. Duck held onto third place with Emily Hosker-Thornhill fourth. 788 ladies crossed the line the second highest number of finishers in the history of the race.

22-year-old Judd told Athletics Weekly: "I'm over the moon to win. The course was testing, I felt ok but I sank in the muddy section and felt bad then but I recovered, made a strong move and then held Louise off at the end."

Aldershot, Farnham & District AC made it five consecutive team title wins with their quartet in the first nine finishers giving them the low score of 22 points which beat Charnwood AC (107 points) by 85 points, a remarkable victory. Highgate Harriers ladies picked up bronze medals. Individual runner-up Louise Small led AFD home and Small was supported by Emily Hosker-Thornhill (4th), Lauren Hall (7th) and Philippa Bowden (9th).