Pendle athlete Ben Lindsay has helped his country to the team silver medal at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships at Toro in Spain.

Running for the Norwich Union Great Britain and Northern Ireland Team in the Junior (U20) Men's Race, the 19-year old finished 12th, and third of the six Britons.

As expected the course was flat and fast, and Lindsay settled in towards the rear of the main pack, completing the first lap towards the centre of the 86 man field.

On the second he suffered a painful cut when he got spiked on the shin and briefly lost concentration, but recovered his composure when his coach Mick Woods shouted to him that every place was vital as the team was running fourth.

Working with team mates David Forrester (St Helens) and Lee Carey (Nuneaton), they progressed gradually over the third and fourth circuits of the Monte La Reina course as the leading group thinned out.

Frenchmen Mourad Amdouni and Florian Carvalho managed to break from the pack for a 1-2 finish while Forrester was fourth, Carey fifth and Lindsay 12th, all of them within half a minute of the winner. Ben clocked 20:34 for the 6.7 kilometres.

France took the team prize with 29 points while Great Britain scored 48 after fourth and final counter Mitch Goose (Norwich) crossed the line in 27th. Germany was third on 57.

After running in last year's World Cross County Championship in Kenya, Ben described it as "another amazing experience, and a great trip." He said: "I was after a top-15 place so I have to be delighted with how I did, as everything over that was a bonus."

The team enjoyed its best ever European Cross Country Championships winning four gold, two silvers and two bronze medals - it was the fifth successive year in which the country has been the most successful nation, and it takes GB&NI to the top of the all time medals table over the 14 years of the competition.

Ben's team mates at Aldershot, Farnham and District, Steph Twell and Charlotte Purdue won individual gold and bronze medals in the Junior Women's race and were the mainstays of their gold medal winning team.

Andy Vernon, another Aldershot man, and Felicity Milton (Durham University) won the U23 races with the men also taking team gold, and the senior women won team silver with Preston Harrier Helen Clitheroe the fourth counter in 22nd.