Dage Minors overcame Sean Trott in the National Cross-Country Championships to be crowned the new men’s open champion at the Arboretum on Saturday.

Five runners competed in the category, with Trott, last year’s winner at the Botanical Gardens, battling with Minors for the first two laps before the latter took control in the last three to ultimately prevail in the five-mile race, winning by 52 seconds in a time of 25min 2.63sec.

Trott settled for second in 25:54.47, with Domico Watson more than three minutes behind in third in 29:15.81.

“Obviously I’m grateful for the win, it’s a national championship so I wanted to go out there and win it and thankfully I was able to,” Minors said.

“I felt in good shape, though not in my best shape right now because there’s nothing really going on. I thought three laps in that I could go for the win.

“We were running together for the first two laps, then halfway in the third lap I made a move and was on my own after that.”

Minors added: “The course was very challenging, there was a steep hill in the back that we had to go up five times. But that’s cross-country for you where every course is different, some flat, some hilly.”

Will Green finished fourth in 34:16.31 and Tom Neill 15 seconds behind in 30:31.18.

Brianna Mendes, 21, won the women’s open race ahead of Shianne Smith in a time of 17:19.38 over the challenging three-mile course. Mendes claimed the title vacated by Gayle Lindsay who was the race director on Saturday.

Smith, a team-mate of Mendes and Trott at last year’s NatWest Island Games in Gibraltar, finished in a time of 23:12.71 to take the women’s 30-39 age group title.

Iziah Tucker won the under-20 title in a time of 16:30.65, while Yannick Hillier was second in 18:24.65.

Tommy Marshall, second to Kahzi Sealey in the under-17 race last year, was crowned the new champion in that 14 to 16 age group after leading home the field with his winning time of 13:11.08.

Jauza James, third last year, was second this time in 13:22.56 while three of Marshall’s team-mates at DNA Panthers, Simeon Hayward, Jayson Simons and Enghan Homan, completed the top five.

Three DNA Panthers runners finished in the podium positions in the under-17 girls race, with Meron Simons setting the pace to win in 15:51.21. Daria Desmond was second in 16:29.85 and Adriana Argent third in 16:42.20.

In the girls under-14 race over two miles, Jaeda Grant was first in 12:23.69 while Ellise Dickinson was second in 14:24.57 and Isis Tucker third in 14:25.27.

In the senior categories, Sarah Thompson is the women’s 40-49 age group winner, beating Rebecca Shepherd by just two seconds. Thompson clocked 21:05.74 and Shepherd 21:07.57.

Darryl Herrick won the men’s race in the same age group, clocking 17:48.89 to lead home John Thompson who was second in 18:32.16.

Victoria Fiddick and Scott Neil were the senior (50-59) women’s and men’s masters winners over three miles, with Kent Richardson and Edwina Arorash winning their respective 60 and over races.

Meanwhile, Mike Rickards won the men’s 70 and over race.