Lauren Booth in the running to represent the UK’s cross country team

Lauren Booth in the running to represent the UK’s cross country team

Aspiring athlete Lauren Booth looks to represent the UK’s cross country team after making the grade to represent Greater Manchester at the Cross-Country Inter-Counties Championship.

Lauren made the Greater Manchester team after finishing seventh in the Greater Manchester Cross Country Championships; with the top eight qualifying for the Inter-counties.

Should she finish in the top four at the Inter-counties Championship on the 11 March, a place in the UK team awaits her.

Lauren said: “I’m really proud to be competing at such a high level.

“To think I’ll be on the same start line as Olympians is amazing, it will be surreal looking around me and seeing such legends like the Brownlee brothers.

“It will be tough to try and reach representing the UK. The race will be on a new course at Loughborough and the quality of the athletes on the start line will be really high, but I will push through and try my best.”

Whilst studying a Level Three Advanced Fitness course at Hopwood Hall College, Lauren also represents both the Bury Athletics Club and the Bolton Triathlon club.

Further success came earlier in the year when she won the Coniston 10k trail race in October, as well as a fifth place finish in the Red Rose Cross Country League where her team won the league.

Lauren said: “I absolutely love running, I’m hoping to move into more sprint orientated races in the future but I’ll still keep up some of the long distance trials. In the summer when I'm doing my sprint races I'm hoping to medal at the Greater Manchester Track and Field Championships in the 400m.

“One of the biggest challenges is working out a life balance though. As a student athlete you still want to go out with friends at weekends which is when you’re always training or racing. Then on top of that I have to find time to train in the week between studying and my job roles as a lifeguard and gym instructor at Bury Leisure Centre and Heywood Sports Village.”