SOUTHEND AC’s international Ben Hunter was by far the most successful local athlete when the South of England Cross-Country Championships were staged in energy-sapping muddy conditions at Hillingdon.

He finished second behind Ronnie Sparke (Woodford Green and Essex Ladies) in the under-20 men’s event.

With a time of 28 mins. 34 secs, Hunter was just 11 seconds behind the winner in a 94-strong field on a day when just completing the course was a test of endurance over 8kms.

Hunter started 2009 in convincing style when he beat not only athletes of his own age but also top seniors in the County Cross-Country League before taking the Essex junior men’s title with victory over eminent names such as Sparke and Basildon’s international James Shane.

He has turned down invitations to run for England this year so he can train hard to achieve his ultimate goal for the campaign of representing Great Britain in the World Cross-Coutry Champion-ships in Jordan later in the year.

Having represented Britain as a 3,000 metre runner in the Youth Olympics in 2007, Hunter is hungry for success as a junior man.

He is certainly on track, although he knows the competition is tough.

Hunter puts much of his improvement down to starting as a student at St Mary’s College, Twickenham, in September last year.

Since then he’s not looked back and said: “It is a fantastic university for distance runners as it is the centre of UK athletics and has also won the bid to be the training camp for endurance runners for the 2012 London Olympics.”

Under the guidance of UK athletics coach Mick Woods and still under the watchful eye of Southend AC coach Ron Dawson, Hunter has made great progress with his running.

He is training extremely hard with other elite athltes — sometimes up to three times a day. This hard work has certainly paid off.