BEN Lindsay has been selected for the Norwich Union Great Britain and Northern Ireland team at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Brussels, Belgium on December 14.

The trial race was at Sefton Park in Liverpool on Saturday in a fixture that also incorporated the Mid Lancs League, therefore giving our local athletes the chance to run against many of the nation’s top stars.

Ben, from Brierfield, is now 20 and therefore too old to represent the junior or U20s men’s team, but during his time in the junior ranks he made appearances in both the World and European Championships.

At Liverpool he was racing against the seniors, but there was a race within a race with six places in the U23s team at stake. The former Pendle AC runner is now with the Aldershot, Farnham and District Club since going to university at St Mary’s in Twickenham, and his club coach Mick Woods warned him to start slowly and play safe.

He ran conservatively around 10 seconds behind the leading pack and picked off his rivals one by one as they fell back, even catching Blackpool’s Antony Ford - twice a winner of the Ribble Valley 10k - on the line.

His final position was 11th and fourth U23, but that was 10th and third of the Brits as one of those in front was from Somalia. On a bitterly cold day, Sarah Tunstall earned a spot in the women’s U23s team for Brussels after matching Lindsay with 11th in the senior women’s race.

The England international fell runner was also third of the U23s but was within 10 seconds of the two above her, Morag MacLarty and Katherine Sparke.

The 22-year old Kendal athlete is in her last year in the age band and was a member of Great Britain’s gold medal winning team in Spain last year.

She also took part in the World Student Games in France last winter.

Sarah has recently taken a post as a physiotherapist at Denise Park’s practice in Clitheroe and is intending to move to East Lancashire in the near future.