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."
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