BASILDON athletes were conspicuous by their absence at the South of England cross-country championships at Hillingdon.

Injury, illness and fear of over-racing deterred all but the senior women who fielded five runners. Stacey Ward was first home in 11th place followed by her sister Teresa, 56th, three minutes behind. The other scorers were Karen Goode 83rd and Grace Brown 142nd. Char-maine Wheeler 153rd completed the Basildon quintet just above the half-way point in a race with 311 finishers.

The team placed 10th overall, and were the third from Essex behind Woodford Green with Essex Ladies and Havering Mayesbrook.

The full local results are printed at the foot of this page.

This weekend both men’s and women’s teams travel the short distance to Hadleigh for the Essex cross country relay championships. The men will want to perform well to erase the memory of the recent County championships where they were denied top place by being unable to complete their full team.