National XC Relays Race Report and ResultsSteel City Striders Running Club Sheffield

Race date: Saturday 1^st November 2025

Race report by Rob Cook

After the Northern XC relays two weeks ago it was the National relays last weekend in Mansfield. Like the Northern xc relays and Graves Park the National relays are another championship with a regular location – Berry Hill Park in Mansfield.

The course this year was (I’m told) slightly different due to works happening in the park, but it wasn’t too dissimilar to my recollection of it from years ago as a junior with open parkland at the start and end of the loops and a flowy section up and down through the woods in between. The addition of a log jump in the woods made for a bit of an interesting obstacle, and the ground throughout was in good condition with the overnight rain not making much of an impact and lots of people were going down in spike length. Fortunately the handover procedure wasn’t what I remembered as a junior, which was having to find and tag your outgoing runner on two sides of the same barrier!

The women’s race was off first, with 3 legs of 3km for each team. Abbie Haworth put in a great opening leg on the A team, coming in 19th (of 122) in a high quality field and was the fastest female strider on the day. Overall the A team of Abbie, Sarah Thorne and Caroline Brock came in 25th of 107 complete teams, the B team of Sarah Jane Brown, Yasmine Chaffer and Simone Young-Alls were in 50th and The C team of Philippa Dew, Karen Clark and Hannah Basu were 69th.

Abbie Pearse on first leg. Her 10:29 bests Steel City’s women’s track 3000m record although cross country courses are never that accurately measured.

The men’s race was the final race of the day and was 4 legs of 5km each, with each leg having two laps (just to confuse things!). Richard Carter Pearson ran the fastest strider leg of 17:21. The men’s A team of Richard, Ben Baxendale, Robert Cook & Jonathan Smith were 85th of 141 complete teams, and the B team of Malcolm Baggaley, Jed Turner, Neil Schofield and Ian Stinson were 115th.

Richard Carter-Pearson Fastest of the Steel City A Team

My experience on the men’s third leg was very eventful. I’d spotted Ben coming around the finishing loops from a long way away, but hearing the numbers being called out our number (164) just wasn’t coming up, waiting and waiting I saw Ben get closer and closer to the finish until I eventually had to hurriedly point out Ben finishing to the pen Marshall, run out to the line and go straight away with the start line marshall waving me straight through. The first straight was spent thinking about what had happened but the distinctive gold and green was a great asset, and there had been two yellow vests coming in, and two going out so it must have been correct!

As I went into the woods for the first time I was picking up places left and right following the other yellow vest from the start and focussing on keeping him in sight, but it was getting louder and louder behind me. All of a sudden the leading trio passed in quick succession with lots of vociferous support and for a brief moment through the woods I was mixed in with the battle for the lead of the race while trying to overtake people coming back to me and deal with the obstacles including the aforementioned log jump! Just as quickly they disappeared off into the distance and as I exited the woods the 4th & 5th teams came past. After that adrenaline rush the remainder of the leg was a bit tricky with my pacing out of the window and no idea who was on my leg, lapping me or falling backwards after a fast start!

Robert Cook who had a close up encounter with the race leaders.

Overall it was a great day of racing. Belgrave took the win in the women’s race and Tonbridge the men’s. The results make it a bit hard to find but I’m fairly certain the fastest legs were Kate Axford of Belgrave (09:24) in the women’s and Calum Johnson of Gateshead (14:34) in the mens. As with the Northern’s it’s a great day out, not too far away and a chance to see the best in the country, sometimes at very close quarters as I found out! Among the entrants was Elliot Giles, 3x Olympian and (according to Wikipedia) the holder of the world mile record on the road, who finished 11th on the first leg.

Senior Women A Team