HAVERING MAYESBROOK athlete Faye Fullerton showed her potential with a fantastic third place at the World Cross Country Trial in Birmingham.

HAVERING MAYESBROOK athlete Faye Fullerton showed her potential with a fantastic third place at the World Cross Country Trial in Birmingham.

The event, which incorporated the Inter Countries Championships, earned the 26-year-old automatic selection to the World Cross Country Championships.

A jubilant Fullerton said: "I surprised myself. I just tried to cover the break and hold on to the leaders for as long as I could.

"I started to suffer in the final few kilometres, but just managed to hold on."

The runner's performance should earn her selection for the Great Britain team at the World Cross Country Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland on March 28.

It will be her sixth World Championships, after three appearances as a junior and two as a senior.

There were also good performances by Harriet Scott and Robyn Matson. Scott featured in the leading group until the halfway point and finished a fine 28th, while Matson was a respectable 113th.

Lydia Hallam helped the Essex under-13 girls' team strike gold, completing the scoring quartet with her excellent 26th place finish.

Four other club athletes wore Essex colours. Hoseah Gikungu was 109th and Nick Shade 228th in the under-15 boys' event. Jamie Buckley-Stanton was 112th for the under-17s, while Bethany Hall finished 127th in the under-17 women's race.

Holy Thomas made up for her recent disappointing performance in the National Indoor Championships, by winning the under-17 60 metres hurdles title for Essex at the Indoor Inter Counties on Saturday.

Her fine victory at Lee Valley was achieved in a new personal best of 8.80 seconds, which lifts her to fourth on the national rankings, and she beat Chelmsford's Hayley McLean, the national bronze medallist, who clocked the same time.

Josh Olawore equalled his 60m hurdles PB of 8.54, narrowly losing out to Essex team-mate Ben Clark.

Olawore had to give second best again to Clark in the long jump, leaping a new best of 6.14m.

He also equalled his high jump best of 1.65m, placing sixth. Annie Adewole and Emmanuel Quarshie were also in Essex action, both finishing second in the shot.

Adewole threw 8.37m in the under-17 women's competition, while under-20 Quarshie set a new PB of 12.40m in the senior men's event.

Three club athletes competed in this weekend's British Universities Indoor Champs at Sheffield.

Luke Stott was eliminated in the 200m semi-final after a 22.56 heat, but returned to join the silver medal winning Loughborough 4x200m relay team.

Sara Luck (London) was seventh in the 1,500m in a season's best of 4:39.24, while Laura Bealey (Sheffield) improved her indoor 400m best to 60.37 placing third in her heat.

Four club athletes represented Essex Schools last weekend at the South East Schools' Years 7 and 8 Inter Counties at Eastleigh, Hampshire.

Hallam was highest placed, coming home fifth in the Year 8 competition in 9:16, as Essex were runners-up.

Francesca Smith was 26th with 10:05. Heidi Surman Wells was 11th in the Year 7 race, as with 8.32, the Essex squad won the team stakes.

Fraser Scott celebrated his Essex vest with a 51st place finish in the Year 7 boys' race.