Use It or Lose It: Steel City Mile 2025

Race Date: Friday 13th June 2025

Held at SHUCAS, Woodbourn Road, the Steel City Mile is an evening of graded mile track races with the winners of each heat being crowned the King and Queen of the Mile until somebody in a subsequent heat runs a faster time. Led by Race Director Malcolm Baggaley and a team of hard working volunteers all seemed to go well although somebody did forget to bring the race numbers hence the homemade efforts to be seen in the photographs below. Malcolm had his work cut out as, alongside organising teams for the Dam Flask Relays the following week, he had to deal with a number of late withdrawals which led to a depleted programme reduced from five to four races. Last year the King and Queen received a Melon or Pineapple signifying the orb which forms part of the royal regalia but this time around, in an attempt to economise, this was replaced by a grapefruit each. Last across the line was awarded a banana. If we had to pick a man of the match it would be Lawrence Bate who stepped up to do the job that nobody wanted – announcer.

Judging from comments on social media, everybody seemed to have a thoroughly enjoyable time on a warm evening without the storms which marred last years event. Whilst a chance to involve those who might not normally go near an athletics track it is sobering to note that only 28 Steel City actually raced. With the cost of hiring the track for the evening covered by the club it’s going to take some work to persuade the committee that this is a good return on their investment.

Race 1

Kate Scott took the lead from the gun with Andrew Woffindin in hot pursuit until at 400m he stepped off the track. This left Peter Brown unopposed to coast home as the evening’s first King of the Mile with 07:08.9 and Kate extending her lead to become the first Queen of the Mile with 06:39.5

Pos Name Time
1 Kate Scott 06.39.5
2 Peter Brown 07.08.9
3 Fran Marshall 07.44.5
4 Eleanor Bull 08.35.1
DNF Andrew Woffindin

Kate and Peter bearing their regalia of office.

Race 2

Bethan Varney led from the gun, just failing to get under six minutes with 06:01.1 whilst Michael Cragg played the waiting game pouncing with a lap to go and finishing well clear of his nearest rival for the King of the Mile with an impressive 05:52.3.

Pos Name Time
1 Michael Cragg 05:52.3
2 Bethan Varney 06:01.1
3 Hannah Holliday 06:07.3
4 Simon Naylor 06:07.6
5 Adam McAuley 06:16.2
6 Ellen Broad 06:19.3
7 Victoria Johnson 06:29.0
8 Jamie Manton 06:43.4

Michael and Bethan who seems to have lost her orb. Note the home made bibs.

Race Three

Things were beginning to really hot up by race three with some experienced track athletes donning their racing spikes. Jed Turner ran a well timed race taking the lead in the final 200m whilst Yasmine Chaffer made sure that she would win the royal grapefruit with 05:45.01.

Pos Name Time
1 Jed Turner 05:34.7
2 Richard Heath 05:37.0
3 Yasmine Chaffer 05:45.1
4 Ben Elliott 05:45.5
5 Hannah Shillitoe 05:49.4
6 Paddy Treehowes 05:57.4
7 Lucy Broom 05:58.2
8 Ian Hunter 05:58.6
9 Colin Hardy 05:58.9
10 Kathy Liddiard 06:00.4

Michael and Bethan pass on the crown to the winners of race three.

Race Four

This heat proved to give the spectators the most to cheer about. Seth Kirby took it up straight from the gun leading for the first quarter until Naeem Stevens went past using his experience to open a gap but with Steve Cahill in hot pursuit. With 600m to go Steve decided to “mix it up a bit” with an ambitious early run for home which was ultimately unsuccessful as Naeem swept past to win in 4:51.8 but he did run a pb of 4:56.8 although not eligible to be added to his Power of 10 profile.

Pos Name Time
1 Naeem Stevens 04:51.8
2 Steve Cahill 04:56.8
3 Seth Kirby 05:01.1
4 Louis Wood 05:25.8
5 Dennis Hamer 05:30.1

Naeem and Yasmine, King and Queen of the Mile for the next twelve months.

4x400m Relay

The evening was rounded off with a “fun” 4x400m relay with team seedings based the mile results from earlier in the evening. Some of the coaches were in despair at the baton exchange technique in evidence. In simple terms, the incoming runner holds the baton in their right hand whilst the outgoing runner, looking over their left shoulder, takes the baton in their left hand. It is the responsibility of the outgoing runner to make sure that they take control of the baton as the incoming runner will be “under stress” to put it mildly.

Pos Leg 1 Leg 2 Leg 3 Leg 4 Time
1 Jamie Manton Paddy Treehowes Simon Naylor Naeem Stevens 04:47
2 Ellen Broad Hannah Holliday Richard Heath Steve Cahill 04:53
3 Andrew Woffindin Hannah Shillitoe Ben Elliott Louis Wood 04:57
4 Adam McAuley Kathy Liddiard Bethan Varney Dennis Hamer 05:08
5 Eleanor Bull Yasmine Chaffer Jed Turner Seth Kirby 05:15
6 Kate Scott Colin Hardy Ian Hunter Lucy Broom 05:17

The winning relay team with cheer squad

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