ENGLAND ATHLETICS APOLOGISE FOR 'SOMME-LIKE' NATIONAL

MUD BATH: Steve Vernon celebrates his win

England Athletics have conceded that they "got it wrong" in allowing the National Cross Country Championships to take place on a course "more suitable for a war than a race". The governing body have today been inundated with complaints from furious athletes about the mess of their kit and the resulting damage to washing machines across the country.

"Cross Country should not be run in these sort of conditions" said a red faced EA spokesman "we appreciate now that to have any mud on the course to totally unacceptable and we will be doing our best to rectify it in future years". 2012's event at Parliament Hill is already under threat as organisers face increasing calls for it "to be held indoors" from now on. "Any event at Parliament Hill is likely to involve mud" continued the spokesman "and so it might be best to steer away from that. We are ruling nothing out - it could even be run on road".

Yesterday's race - won by Steve Vernon - had the highest drop out rate in history and officials had deal with a stream of furious team managers pointing out "severe mud damage" to club tents. Some athletes have still yet to finish their race. England Athletics insiders have today estimated the cost of the clean up operation to be "close to £35m". "The whole field is going to have to be dug up and relaid" said our source "and [EA] will have to pay for thousands of cars to be fully valeted". The association have set up a 24 hour hotline to deal with the "unprecedented call volume" following the event and have encouraged relatives concerned about competitors to contact them urgently.

James Wilkinson who slumped to a disappointing 21st place blasted race organisers calling the whole day "a fiasco". "How can any half decent runner be expected to run in that?" thundered Wilkinson from his post race press conference "I am going to need psychological help to get over this. I am absolutely traumatised".