U11's at Weaver Hills FRA Junior Championship race: first three finishers were all female, in a field of 10 boys and 13 girls. But go up one age group to U13's, and there were no girls among the first ten finishers. Which all probably goes to reinforce earlier comments about small fields.

Looking at total numbers of runners in each of the age groups is also interesting. Numbers of runners increase with age from the U9's to the U15's, but then drop as you go up to U17's and U19's: 50 runners at U15, only 14 at U19. Young runners lose interest as they become independent of parents; but then, my interests after I went to university were completely different from what I did when I was at school.