Race Date: Saturday 21^st February 2026

Held at Eastwick Park, Sedgefield, Co. Durham this course may be familiar to some as it was the venue for the Northern Champs back in 2024. Descriptions of the course were of it being relatively flat and even boring with 300ft of climb for the women and 450ft for the men with conditions underfoot relatively dry with only two patches of significantly muddy ground. The track, 8.4km for the women  and 12.4km for the men was certainly fast with first man skipping round at pace a smidgen under three minutes per kilometre. Others found that there were penalties for being too ambitious at the start with a final long lap described as “going on for ever”.

Hal Roberts holding good form even towards the latter stages of his 12.4 effort.(Rob Byers)

The start saw Malcolm Baggaley surprised to find himself still in front of both Naeem and Aaron at the first kilometre, this being attributed to their poor route selection and getting baulked rather than his own over exuberance; with over a thousand men spread across the start line it can get busy. Aaron Francis, running in his last cross country race before he becomes a (proper) veteran, echoed the views of many that the day was ‘good fun’ with further comments on the excellent support offered around the course. The race also saw Hal Roberts digging out his old Steel City vest having recently returned to the club after a few years elsewhere.

Friendly Fire. Aaron, forgetting that he is now running for Steel City, is captured by photographer Rob Byers trying to spike Naeem.

The Steel City women had a good day finishing in 21st place of 54 complete teams, an improvement of eight places on last year at Parliament Hill Fields when they were 29th. The rivalry between Sarah Thorne and Caroline Brock continues with Caroline prevailing by over thirty seconds although Sarah does usually prefer a ‘proper’ cross country course rather than the flat ones. Congratulations to Rotherham Harriers U17 women who returned to South Yorkshire with silver medals.

Pos	Name	Gun Time
96	Caroline Brock	00:33:59
110	Sarah Thorne	00:34:34
148	Sarah-Jane Brown	00:36:05
228	Emily Green	00:38:41
341	Laura Rangeley	00:43:18
459	Jo Gleig	00:49:51

Sarah-Jane coming up on the rails with the going heavy on one of the few truly muddy sections of the course. (Rob Byers)

With the first four packing well, the men were 42nd of 68 complete teams then showed their strength in depth with a dogged performance from Stuart Jones to close out Steel City in 27th position in the 9 to count rankings.

Strength in Depth: Stuart Jones who closed out the men’s nine to score team. (Rob Byers)

Pos	Name	Gun Time
397	Robert Cook	00:49:01
402	Aaron Francis	00:49:04
428	Naeem Stevens	00:49:29
475	Hal Roberts	00:50:35
616	Malcolm Baggaley	00:54:16
667	Ben Baxendale	00:55:35
727	Neil Schofield	00:56:54
780	Ian Stinson	00:58:12
965	Stuart Jones	01:05:30

Link to full results National Cross Country Champs 2026

This winds up the 2025/26 Cross Country season for most except the three women selected to run in the Inter-Counties and perhaps the odd masters or two for the old folks. Next big event on the agenda are the Northern Six and Twelve Stage Road Relays at Sheepmount Stadium, Carlisle on 28th March.

Back Row: John Eggington, Rob Cook, Aaron Francis, Naeem Stevens, Hal Roberts, Malcolm Baggaley, Jo Gleig, Sarah-Jane Brown,, Caroline Brock, Emily Green. Front Row: Ian Stinson, Neil Schofield, Sarah Thorne, Laura Rangely. Absent, perhaps doing their warm up and drills, Stuart Jones and Ben Baxendale. (Rob Byers)

 

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