Men’s senior race winner Mahamed Mahamed, of Southampton AC, leads the way. Photo: Leonard Martin

THOUSANDS of athletes homed in on Hampstead Heath on Saturday to take part in the English National Cross-Country Championships.

Among the clubs tackling the sticky mud at Parliament Hill were Highgate Harriers.

And their top performers included Alex Lepretre, who completed the men’s senior 12k race in 43 minutes, 22 seconds to take 17th place out of 2,092 runners.

Highgate Harriers’ Under-15s boys’ team

Alex Bampton and Pete Chambers crossed the finish line milliseconds apart, clocking times just over 46 minutes to take 83rd and 84th place respectively.

Completing the club’s scoring six were: Robel Bahelbi (46:21), who was 99th; Charlie Haywood (46:30), who was 105th; and Roger Poolman (46:50), who was 125th. Overall, Highgate finished sixth out of 133 clubs.

Meanwhile, Hannah Viner led Highgate home in the women’s senior race, run over 8k. Recording a time of 31:16, Viner was 23rd out of 1,011 finishers.

The other three scorers were: Karina Thornton (35:28), who was 146th; Emily Young (36:33), who was 190th; and Ellen Kerr (39:13), who was 327th. Overall, Highgate were 21st out of 104 clubs.