EVEN before she was clutching an impressive trophy for winning the inaugural kilomathon, run over 26 kilometres between Nottingham and Derby, Sarah Harris was setting her sights higher.

Harris, the rising star of Long Eaton Running Club, is beginning to wonder if she could qualify for the Commonwealth Games marathon in India in October.

"Why not? You have to believe," said the former ultra-distance runner, who has returned to club athletics only in the last few months.

At 34, she has time on her side as a marathon runner and will put her form to the test next in the Edinburgh Marathon in May.

The Commonwealth qualifying time is two hours, 40 minutes and Harris hopes to go close in Edinburgh.

She is getting faster with the help of top coach Andy McNeill, who is supplementing the training she does with her husband, Rod, himself a fine club runner.

"Andy is teaching me about building confidence," said Harris.

"It's intelligent training and a real difference to my usual schedules.

"It was kind of a surprise to win the kilomathon. You don't want to go in cocky, thinking you'll win everything, but you have to believe you have a chance.

"I wanted to go faster but it's a distance I'd not done before, so it's hard to know what a good time is.

"In Edinburgh, I definitely want to go under 2.50 and, hopefully, close to 2.40, depending on fitness, of course."

The kilomathon success, as well as her Derbyshire cross country championship title, has raised Harris's profile quickly and she is happily taking on a request to start children's running clubs at three schools, including Cloudside, at Sandiacre, where her own daughter is a pupil.

BEN Connor won a rare medal for Derbyshire in the Inter-Counties Cross Country Championships when he came home an excellent third in the Men's Under-17 race over six kilometres.

Connor, eventual winner Ross Matheson (Scotland) and Ian Bailey (Surrey) broke away early in the race to contest the medals.

Derby's Tom Bishop came seventh in the under-20 race and the city's international steeplechaser, Luke Gunn, was 10th in the senior race.

DERBY'S Suzzi Palmer made it three successive wins in the event when she triumphed in the North-East Under-17 Combined Events Championships in Gateshead.

And her victory was matched by Derby's Jamie Turner, who turned in three personal bests to win the under-17 boys' event, a year after he was second at under-15 in the corresponding meeting.

Matt Jarvis was fourth in the event in his first competitive meeting – a fine achievement, since he only learned to hurdle a week before.

And while Emily Johns came sixth in a strong under-15 girls' pentathlon, her fine 1.54m high jump took her to within a centimetre of the English Schools' Championship qualifying mark – which she has since reached in training.