Last year’s winners at the British Athletics Cross Challenge event return to Teardrop Lakes on Saturday

The second meeting of this winter’s British Athletics Cross Challenge series takes place in Milton Keynes on Saturday (Nov 12) with Jess Gibbon and Hugo Milner, the two athletes who won the senior races at this event 12 months ago, set to return.

Cardiff staged the first meeting in the 2022-23 series with Amelia Quirk and Emile Cairess finishing top British athletes in the senior races. Quirk and Cairess are giving Milton Keynes a miss to prepare instead for the Liverpool Cross Challenge at Sefton Park on November 26. But the Milton Keynes fields are still packed with quality.

A busy day at Teardrop Lakes on Saturday will also see a Home International incorporated into the Cross Challenge races. In addition there will be plenty of Chiltern League club runners in action.

Gibbon is joined by Alexandra Millard, Sophie Tarver and Jennifer Walsh in the England team this weekend as they face not only teams from Wales and Northern Ireland but also the Midland Counties, Northern Athletics, Eastern Counties and South of England.

British internationals Amy-Eloise Markovc and Melissa Courtney-Bryant are also in the entries, plus world university cross-country champion Izzy Fry.

Milner leads the England team in the men’s race and is joined by team-mates Mahamad and Zak Mahamed plus Alex George. Further entries include Matt Stonier, the Invicta East Kent runner who won the Emsley Carr Mile and ran 3:32.50 in the Commonwealth 1500m final earlier this year.

READ MORE: 2021 Milton Keynes Cross Challenge coverage

Of course a full range of age-group races are also taking place with top under-20 runners like Cardiff winner Ed Bird and Alice Bates in action. Like the seniors, the under-20 races incorporate a Home International too.

Following Milton Keynes and Liverpool later this month, the Cross Challenge series moves to Perth on January 14 and reaches its climax at Loughborough on March 11.