SNOW specialist Louise Damen has won the National Cross Country Championship title.

The Winchester & District AC runner has claimed some impressive results in wintry conditions.

And she repeated the feat in the snow at Sunderland’s Herrington Park.

The womens race was the penultimate event of a full programme in the north east, ensuring that by the time the gun went the whole course had turned into a mud bath.

Early challenges came from Midlands champion Juliet Doyle and the previous week’s Southern champion Lilly Partridge, but on the first serious climb Damen established a lead and she never looked back.

By the finish she had extended her lead to a full 60 seconds, the most dominant winner of all of the afternoon’s events.

Damen is at her best when the conditions are extreme.

Her first senior Nationals victory in 2011 was on a similarly heavy course at Alton Towers.

She has also this season performed exceptionally well in the snow.

In particular her 11th place in the European championships in a snowy Budapest in December ranks as one of her best performances, Damen also showed she was in fine form during January with a win at Cardiff in the McCain UK Cross Challenge, again on a snow bound course.