Andy Vernon
STUBBINGTON's Andy Vernon claimed a superb bronze medal at the European Cross Country Championships in Spain.
Andy, who runs second claim for the club and who came through the Stubbington youth set-up, was one of Britain's stars in Toro where Britain won 14 medals.
He was a surprise bronze in the men's under-23 race where Kemal Koyuncu outclassed a strong field to win the race. A bronze medallist from the European junior 5000m championships, the Turkish runner claimed a three-second win over the fancied Russian Yevgeniy Rybakov, with Andy, who runs for Aldershot, Farnham & District AC, just another two seconds adrfit.
Andy, who is studying at St Mary's University in Twickenham, helped Britain to the team title backed up by Andrew Baker in 12th, Ryan McLeod in 18th, Tom Lancashire in 19th and Keith Gerrard in 23rd.
Andy was a junior silver medallist at the European Cross Country Championships two years ago, and this performance further enhances his reputation as one of Britain's brightest running prospects.
He finished fast in the race, moving up from sixth place with a kilometre of the 8,200m race remaining to get up on the shoulder of Rybakov.
"I tried my best to chase Koyuncu, but it soon became clear that this was going to be a waste of energy, and I concentrated on retaining second place because I knew the Englisman, who was approaching fast, would be dangerous. I think I made the right decision," added Rybakov, the 2002 and 2003 junior champion.
The enthralling battle between Rybakov and Vernon brought them closer to Koyuncu, who had anxiously been looking over his shoulder several times in the final kilometre, and briefly it looked as though they were going to catch him, but the line came too quickly for either of them to deprive him of the gold medal and wipe the broad smile off his face.