CITY of Salisbury’s Alex Mundell opted for an unusual mix of cross country running and indoor track racing at the weekend – and notched up successes in both.

The 18-year-old, running on soft going at the Hampshire cross country league fixture in Bournemouth, improved her chances of taking second place for the season overall by finishing tenth on the day against some good competition.

At the same meet, Sam Coles, in his first season, did well to finish seventh in the under 13s and Linda New was 72nd in the seniors. Jay Domoney in the under 15s took a creditable 17th after injury, Maisie Grant was 22nd and Heidi Porter 29th. Among the senior men, Craig Murphy was 156th and Gary Domoney 181st.

Next day, on the indoor track at Cardiff’s South West Under 20s Championship 1,500m Mundell won this year’s title with a swift 4min 54sec for the gold. Also indoors, at the hotly-contested South of England Championships at Lee Valley in London, Amy Jaramazovic in the 400m ran an excellent personal best 59.88sec for fourth place in the final.

Jake Ness clocked the second fastest qualifying time of the day in the semi-final of the under 20s 400m with 49.75sec, and was only just pushed down into third place in a tough final.

Jonathon Batchelor qualified for the final in his first 300m as an under 15 and went on to take fifth place overall.

Abbey Babtunde, Freya Espir and Alex James in the 400m and Tom Cummings in the 800m all were unable to progress beyond the heats.

Finally on the big muddy hills of the Marlborough Rough and Tumble 10mile, Ian Shelley took 13th spot of 500 with 75min 43sec and Kathryn Waterworth was 360th in 120min.