Blissful New 12 months! The primary Weekend Spherical Up of 2025 options loads of quick and aggressive racing; hopefully this continues all year long. James Rhodes brings you the highlights of the racing motion.
The racing yr ended with a bang, because of the Podium NYE 5k at Battersea Park. The occasion, sponsored by Mizuno, noticed a brand new course trialled within the always-fast park, which included the athletics monitor.
A number of athletes ended the yr with a PB. They included elite girls’s race winner Revee Walcott-Nolan, who improved her greatest to fifteen:39. From the outset, her and steeplechase specialist Poppy Tank had developed a niche on the remainder of the sphere, which was by no means relinquished. Poppy stayed with Revee till the closing kilometre and was rewarded with a 15:44 PB.
In third, Mia Waldmann had among the finest races of her profession, clocking 15:52. Mia missed a lot of 2024, solely racing on the European Cross Nation Championships and related trials. Her time is a step-change enchancment from her earlier PB of 17:19, set in 2019, and likewise her monitor greatest (16:59).
Jess Gibbon completed fourth (15:58) and Herne Hill Harrier’s Lucy Jones (16:12 PB) fifth. There have been PBs additionally for Bea Wooden (16:20) and Eilish Flanagan (16:30) in sixth and seventh, with Gemma Hillier-Moses (16:33) eighth.
Photograph: James Rhodes
Shut End
The boys’s race noticed an exciting end between Tomer Tarragano and Tom Eager, with the pair barely separable within the closing metres. Tomer simply received the higher of Tom, ending in 13:49 to Tom’s 13:50. Each recorded PBs, as did third place finisher Joe Tuffin (13:52).
Abdinasir Elmi, who received the Friday Night time Beneath the Lights 5 Mile earlier within the month, had led for all however the closing 500m. He ended up fourth with 13:54, a PB.
Behind, Jacob Allen (14:00) completed fifth, Liam Dee (14:06 PB) sixth and Ben Bradley (14:17) seventh. Dom Nolan continued his welcome return to racing with 14:18 for eighth.
Photograph: James Rhodes
Cross Nation Championships
Numerous Cross Nation Championships passed off over the weekend. Some have been cancelled because of the climate, and never all have outcomes printed on the time of writing.
The Surrey Championships returned to Lloyd Park in Croydon, which final hosted the occasion in 2023. Situations on the course worsened because the day went on, with the senior males’s the final race and senior girls’s the penultimate.
After making a decisive transfer on the third and closing lap, Jack Kavanagh was a transparent winner of the senior males’s race. He completed in 37:24, giving Holland Sports activities their first Surrey Championships title. The Aldershot duo of Joseph O’Connell (38:17) and Tom Chandler (38:19) accomplished the rostrum.
Photograph: James Rhodes
Belgrave Harriers packed properly to safe the group title. Their six scorers have been Phil Wicks (p6), Sam Gebreselassie (p7), James Hancock (p8), Ollie Garrod (p17), Harry Lawson (p23) and Jonathan Neville (p24).
Suzie Monk received the senior girls’s race, finishing the two-lap course in 28:43. The Guildford athlete completed eight seconds away from Aldershot’s defending champion Georgia Bruinvels (28:51). After main for a lot of the race, Leeds Metropolis’s Dominique Corradi completed third (28:59).
Photograph: James Rhodes
It was Suzie’s first title after eight appearances and a second-place end in 2023. She additionally raced with out victory within the junior classes, stretching again to 2009. A welcome win! She additionally led Guildford to a maiden group title, alongside Susannah Lecoutre (p6), Evie Warren (p8) and Eleanor Harrison (p18).
Extra Mud
Gloucester Park in Basildon hosted the Essex Championships, the place Adam Hickey and Khai Mhlanga took senior victories.
Khai Mhlanga could also be an rare cross-country runner, however she received her first senior county XC title. Finest recognized for her 800m exploits, the Herts Phoenix athlete completed in 30:11. The rostrum was accomplished by Havering duo Kate O’Neil (30:20) and Lauren Reed (31:43) in second and third respectively.
The quartet of Kate, Lauren, Robyn Matson (p14) and Morgan Campbell (p18) secured the group title for Havering.
Metropolis of Southend’s Adam Hickey (39:24) was a transparent winner of the senior males’s race, ending 29 seconds forward of the sphere. Callum Charleston (39:53) of Chelmsford took second and Havering’s James Stewart (41:00) third.
Metropolis of Southend received the group title, with Adam, Sam Norris (p5), Bob Sporle (p12), Dylan Schubert (p17), Rhys Gillard (p19) and Max Stapleton (p23).
Aldershot, Farnham & District athletes received the respective senior races on the Hampshire Championships. Theo Doran crossed the senior males’s end forward of Southampton’s Peter Hart and Rikki James. Kate Estlea-Morris completed seventeen seconds forward of Southampton’s Sarah Winstone and Winchester’s Alex Lane within the senior girls’s race.
Nonetheless Going
Going down at Manufacturers Hatch, the Kent Championships supplied Tonbridge’s James Kingston and Rebecca Weston of Invicta East Kent with titles.
Rebecca was a transparent winner of the senior girls’s race over 8350m, ending in 31:21. Blackheath & Bromley’s Naomi Kingston completed second (31:59) and Medway & Maidstone’s Charlotte Younger (32:13) third. Blackheath & Bromley took the group honours from Invicta East Kent and Kent AC.
Photograph: Mark Hookway
Tonbridge dominated the senior males’s race, with six of the highest seven finishers. Ashford’s Louis Small, who took second, bucked the development. He accomplished the 12km course in 38:57, with James Kingston ending in 38:18. Alexander Howard accomplished the rostrum (39:30). Naturally, Tonbridge received the group title with Medway & Maidstone and Cambridge Harriers becoming a member of them on the rostrum.
Photograph: Mark Hookway
Herts Phoenix’s Annabel Gummow and Brett Rushman received the respective senior races on the Hertfordshire & Middlesex Championships at Trent Park.
Additional North
Over 40 seconds separated William Walker of Clayton-Le-Moor Harriers from the remainder of the sphere on the Lancashire Championships. Ross Harrison of Blackburn Harriers and Samuel Perry of Northern (Isle of Man) accomplished the rostrum. Held at Whitton Park in Blackburn, it was the house membership who took the group title led by second-placed Ross. Leeds Metropolis’s Ruth Jones received the senior girls’s race. Tidy. Emma McColm of Preston Harriers completed second, main Preston to the group title, with Keswick’s Nichola Jackson third.
Madeline Williams of Shrewsbury and Matthew Collins of Oswestry Olympians took titles on the Shropshire Championships. Titles on the Northamptonshire Championships went to Rugby & Northampton’s Luke Greer (33:59 over 10k) and Kettering’s Alice Bates (35:30 for six.5k).
The Cheshire Championships noticed Vale Royal’s Sarah Dufour-Jackson win the senior girls’s title forward of Katie Latham of Nantwich Working Membership and Cheshire Dragon’s Carol Parsons. Hercules Wimbledon’s Daniel Cliffe received the senior males’s race after a detailed competitors with Vale Royal’s Aaron Doyle. Simply six seconds separated the pair. Fellow Vale Royal athlete Arun Dight completed third.
Vale Royal received each senior group titles.
Again on the Roads
Loads of street races have been held over the previous week. Wins on the Beith Harriers New 12 months 10k went to Kilmarnock Harrier Jonathon Downey (32:54) and Emily Renfrew of Bellahouston Harriers (38:51). Each recorded decisive wins. Downey completed over one minute forward of the remainder of the sphere and Renfrew virtually two minutes away from second-placed Katrine Kelly (40:45).
Callum Bowen Jones (32:35) and Maria Marsh (39:23) took wins on the Wymondham New 12 months’s Day 10k. It was day within the Bowser family on the Cleethorpes New 12 months’s Day 10k. Each Matthew (31:56) and Sophie (34:46) took victories.
Holly Archer (34:32) and Alex Melloy (32:26) have been quickest on the Ely New 12 months’s Eve 10k. It was Archer’s fourth outing over the gap in 2024, having received European Indoor silver over 1500m in 2021.
Wins on the St Albans New 12 months’s Eve 10k went to Nick Harris-Fry (32:58) and Natasha White (36:50). Katie Vargeson (38:52) and Andrew Jakeman (32:47) completed first on the Marham Flyers New 12 months’s Eve 10k. Additionally on New 12 months’s Eve, Lauren Cooper (17:35) and Ben Reynolds (14:48) received the historic Nos Galen 5k.
Ending Indoors
Racing for the primary time since June, Jake Wightman contested the Scottish 3000m Championships in Glasgow, the place he clocked 7:44.94. Tom Eager (7:45.87) and Thomas Bridger (7:53.66) accomplished the top-three. Within the girls’s race, Sarah Calvert secured victory with a PB of 9:15.67, ending forward of Stefanie Tucker and Lynn McKenna.
Photograph: Mark Vile
