With the top four from the first Reebok Cross Challenge in Falkirk all running in Birmingham, a highly competitive race was expected.

Towards the end of the first lap in the two lap race, Alex Derricott began to pull away from Mark Bailey (Southend-on-Sea), Conor McNulty (Kilbarchan AAC), Lee Carey (Nuneaton Harriers), Craig Peters (Bristol & West) and Mark Burgess (Woodford Green & Essex Ladies).  Derricott then continued to pick up the pace and maintained the lead through to the line, winning by six seconds in a time of 19:31.

There was super scrap in the final 600m between Lee Carey and Conor McNulty.  McNulty overtaking Carey with 200m to go, but a determined Carey fighting hard in the final straight to retain second place.  Craig Peters finished in fourth place with Sam Godfrey, second in Falkirk, having a strong second lap to pull himself back to fifth place. 

Scot Conor McNulty (Kilbarchan) dramatically improved on his third place in Birmingham to head the field home in the men's under 17 race in 15:57. He had a 10 metre lead over West Waterford's David McCarthy at the half-way stage and at the start of the second lap the Irish runner thought McNulty was struggling and move to the front.

McNulty, who defends his Scottish schools under 16 title later in the season, admitted he was going through a bad patch but, on the long run down back to the finish found a new lease of life and secured a narrow victory in 15:57. 'I was hoping for a win,' said McNulty.

Kilbarchan’s Conor McNulty added to his victory at Parliament Hill by running away with the Under 17 race. With a third place at Birmingham also under his belt, he entered the race in sixth place in the Series but boosted that with a 21 seconds victory. Alex Derricott, however, remains top of the standings.

Bill McGuirk of the Newcastle Evening Chronicle selected McNulty as his Reebok athlete of the day, saying: 'The Renfrewshire athlete continued where he left off at Parliament Hill by storming to a comprehensive victory in the Under 17 men's race.

To put McNulty's effort into prospective, his winning time of 19min 10sec for the 5.9km, was 11 seconds quicker than that of the first home in the Under 20 race, David Awde.'

He went ahead on the first circuit with West Suffolk’s Sam Godfrey and Woodford’s Green Mark Burgess giving chase from a distance, and though the gap grown much more on the second lap he was never troubled.

UK Athletics today named eight athletes in a Norwich Union Great Britain and Northern Ireland Team for the annual junior international cross country match against Portugal and Spain in Lisbon on 14 January 2007. Purdue finished third in the Junior Women’s Trial at Liverpool but was too young to be considered for the European Cross Country Championships. She won the Junior Women’s race at the IAAF Permit meeting in Brussels last Sunday and will not be too young to be considered for the IAAF World Cross Country Championships being staged in Mombasa, Kenya, on 24 March 2007.

McNulty has shown good form already this winter, winning 5000m races against Seniors in the Scottish League, was seventh in the European Junior Men’s Trial at the UK Cross Challenge meeting at Liverpool.