Tarragano had a strong competition overall, and only just missed out on a bronze medal on his first appearance as an international. The Brighton & Hove athlete completed the 7K course in 23:47 in a race that separated the first four finishers by less than ten seconds.

Over the same weekend, the annual county championships took place around the country, with Maayan Radus of Shaftesbury Harriers beating her nearest rival by 21 seconds to take the U17 Middlesex county title. Sam Greenstein won silver in his U15 race.

Zac Segal achieved third place for Hertfordshire in exceptionally wet and muddy conditions. “The ground really sapped the legs of the runners, as the deep mud was sucking their feet in,” reported Zac’s father, James, from the marginally drier sidelines.

“A leading pack of five broke away quite early and, about halfway round, Zac tried to go with them and pulled away from fourth and fifth, but he couldn’t quite close the gap on the front two. It wasn’t the individual result he was hoping for, but he was still pleased to win a gold medal as part of the St Albans AC U15 boys team.” Segal will join Radus and Greenstein at the Inter Counties cross country championships in Loughborough in March.

MLH’s Jacob Clement, 12, signalled his intentions for the season at the first Lee Valley open of 2020 with a 200m best time of 27.70 and a new PB of 2:35.15 for the 800m. U15 Ellie Wolfenden cleared 2.45m at the Sale Harriers open at Manchester’s Sportcity, adding 10cm to her previous pole vault PB.