The Guernsey women’s sliver medal-winning team at Hampshire Cross-Country Championships (left to right) Nikki Neal, Louise Perrio, Martine Scholes and Sarah Mercier. (1076291)

SNOWY Edinburgh did not bring the best out of Lee Merrien on Saturday, but down in Hampshire at the county cross-country championships, Louise Perrio and Steve Dawes pulled out the stops to win a brilliant double.

In a closely fought race Perrio ran a superb tactically astute race to defend her county title in Southampton.

Perrio sat in with Winchester’s Lucy Elliott and Shaftsbury’s Amy Campbell for the majority of the two-lap five-mile race before turning on the pace in the final mile to first drop Campbell and then draw clear of Elliott within the last 800m for an eight-second victory in 29 minutes 11 seconds.

As defending champion it was no surprise that Perrio emerged victorious but the manner of Dawes’ emphatic win, for an unprecedented senior double victory, was beyond the wildest of expectations.

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