Mansfield's Ella Hughes selected to run for England

The 18 year-old, from Southwell, will be part of a team competing in the Lotto Cup cross country event at Rotselaar in Belgium on 14th February.

It is a fantastic reward for Ella, who over the last two years has put in some superb performances on track road and cross country.

Mansfield Harriers had further success last week as the Men’s Veteran team won the Sport Nottinghamshire team of the year for 2015 to go along with the one they won at the Mansfield sports recognition awards.

In cross country action this week several Harriers competed at the Nottinghamshire Schools Cross Country Championships at Wollaton Park in very wet conditions.

The first eight in each race win the honour of representing the County in the English Schools Championships.

Competing in the senior boy’s event, Alex Rieley confirmed his pre-race favourite tag by winning the event with a gun to tape front running performance.

In the same race the fast improving Matt Buchan confirmed his recent form by putting in a great race to finish second.

In the inter-girls race May Roberts showed a pleasing return to some sort of form after struggling with a virus for nearly two months.

The Forest Town athlete showed she is getting back to something like what she can do with a trademark aggressive run only tiring in the last mile due to a recent lack of training to eventually finish 6th

In the junior girls race the club had five finishers, with first home Courtney Spencer running a superbly timed race to finish seventh and qualify for the Nottinghamshire team.

Paige Vick got stuck in traffic and literally got to the start line just as the girls were about to go, but put in her best run of the winter to finish 14th. High hurdler Jess Lake was next home showing her versatility for different events coming home in 44th, closely followed by Hannah Shakespeare who put in a storming finish for 45th and Georgia Graham in 51st.

In the Year 6 race recent newcomer to the club Olivia Barrett put in a superb run finishing an unexpected second place.

This is a great first performance from Olivia who now looks to have a very promising athletics career ahead of her as she develops through the age groups.