Tom Russell was bitterly disappointed when he lost the Scottish title last month by a stride, after one of the finest championship finishes in years.

On a day that will surely inspire and propel him to more significant senior honours, the 21-year-old Bristol student had to settle for second once again, in the Home Countries International at Holyrood on Saturday.

However, his furious race-long battle with Tom Lancashire, a Great Britain internationalist, showed he has inherited the mettle of his father, a former Perth steeplechaser. Russell surrendered only on the run-in.

He finished three seconds down on the former European Under-20 1500m silver medallist, who was also a member of Britain's gold medal-winning squad at the European Cross Country Championships last December, claiming some significant scalps.

Lancashire, from Bolton, was a training partner of Fife's Andrew Lemoncello at Florida State, but has taken a year out to pursue Beijing Olympic aspirations at 1500m. He covered the 8000 metre course in 24min 39sec, finally securing a 5m break on the ascent of Haggis Knowe, with barely a quarter of a mile to go.

By his own admission, Russell had a "bad run" in the trials for the world event. "This made up for it," he said. "It's a better measure of my ability.

"I've been training in Perth this week, staying at my gran's," said the third-year maths and philosophy student. The £200 prize from the £4000 pot in this welcome revival of the Home Countries International (last held in 1990) will also not go amiss for the young student.

Mark Pollard who had edged Russell for the Scottish title at Falkirk, was a distant 13th, only just holding off the first Scottish junior, Kilbarchan's Conor McNulty. On a day he will want to forget (the Inverclyde man is very much better than this) Pollard was also headed by Pitreavie's John Newsom, who reached an inspired fifth. He had taken bronze, some way behind Pollard and Russell, at the Scottish championship.

There was no stopping England, though. With four in the first six, they swept the team honours and £1000 prize by a 20-point margin. There was a similar pattern to the women's race where Freya Murray, axed from the Scottish Institute of Sport last year, gained £100 consolation - "it will go to our bathroom fund" - with a gutsy third place at the end of a winter dogged by injury.

Edinburgh's Chris O'Hare, the UK inter-counties silver medallist, won the Bank of Scotland-backed inter-regional men's under-17 event, while Lothian's Sarah Inglis was an equally convincing winner of the women's.

Edinburgh AC were most successful in the children's relays, with two titles from the four races, and O'Hare's younger brother Dominic was lead-off man in the Under-11 winning team.