2026 ECCA Cross Country Relays – Report
6 min read2026 ECCA Cross Country Relays, Berry Hill Park, Mansfield, October 31
Tonbridge and Herne Hill Harriers won the men’s and women’s races grabbing the headlines, but in what is officially the most popular cross-country team event of the season, it was the age groups that provided the real excitement.
With something like 1000 teams made up of more than 6000 athletes, the action flowed thick and fast from the very first race – the U20 and U18 women – to a wonderfully controlled finale from a top Tonbridge team in the men’s race.
When you can put together a men’s squad that is led out by Jack Higgins (1:44.81 800m) and anchored by James Kingston (2nd, 2nd, 3rd, 1st in the last four Nationals) with Jamie McDonald (14:17.83 5000m) and Ted Higgins (3:34.89 1500m) running two and three it’s perhaps no surprise that Kingston could describe his victory leg as “comfortable.”
“To be honest the boys had done all the work for me and I could just run around,” said Kingston afterwards.
Jack Higgins had got the Kent quartet moving in the right direction inside the first couple of kilometres. Over the years, Mansfield has dealt up all sorts of testing conditions, but for once this was what each and every runner described as “perfect.” In fact, most opted for track spikes such was the quality of the conditions underfoot. It was a day to leave the 15mm spikes behind.
Higgins crossed the line second on the first leg with a super-fast 14:38 just behind Woodford Green’s Ben Potrykus who ran 14:36. But as ever, relays are all about strength in depth and Higgins handed over to MacDonald who ran 15:11 which took Tonbridge into the lead. On the third leg, Ted Higgins flew around his 5km in 14:31. Behind him, the ever-consistent teams of Western Tempo and Cambridge and Coleridge fought it out for second and third but with a National XC faithful on the final leg, the result up front was never really in doubt
“We knew we had a good chance of winning,” Kingston said, adding that all four said they’ll be competing in Liverpool’s Cross Challenge later this month.
“And we’ll have a look at the indoor after that,” said the Higgins brothers; one will have a look at the 800m, the other the 1500m.
Earlier, the women’s 3x3km produced a similarly consistent performance from the winners. Herne Hill Harriers. Lucy Jones led her team out with 9:25, handing over to Sophie Tooley who ran 9:53 before Katie Snowden anchored the trio with 9:23.
“Wow that was fast,” Snowden said afterwards, revealing a ‘problem’ that runners had to deal with all day. The course was super-quick for once and it was oh so easy to blast that opening section down to the lake. “I went through the opening kilometre at 4:45 per mile pace and realised that was way too fast,” she laughed. “My legs had gone by the final kilometre but luckily the girls had done all the hard work for me,” she said. “They did a brilliant job and I can’t thank them enough,” she continued, explaining she’s only just got back into training after representing GB in the World Road Running Champs.
Defending champions Belgrave Harriers picked up the silver medals with Aldershot Farnham and District adding a fourth medal to their huge collection.
For the first time, this year’s championships featured a mixed relay of 4×1 mile which was as frantic and exciting as it sounds. The four Cambridge and Coleridge runners – Katie Lowery (5:12), Alex Molloy (4:27), Louisa Shanahan (5:19) and finally sub 3:50 man Tom Keen (4:33) emerged victorious and he summed it all up perfectly.
“That was really, really exciting,” he said. “I hope they do that again. It was so hard to run that fast on a course that you usually run 5km on. Your feet are going everywhere. It was almost too fast!”
Age Group Action
Aldershot got their day off to a perfect start in the junior women’s race. They crossed the line in third, but such are the rules for this English Championships, the race winners Loughborough Students along with the Welsh trio of Swansea Harriers didn’t actually qualify for the medals.
Of course, that didn’t mean the race wasn’t exciting and it set the scene perfectly for a great day of racing. There was very little to separate the top three teams and with 200 metres to run it was still anybody’s to win. Loughborough did win, but Aldershot’s Katie Pye clocked a spectacular 8:23 for her leg to anchor the Surrey squad to gold.
In the U18’s race, which was run at the same time, Windsor Slough Eton and Hounslow took the gold medal thanks in part to Zoe Allan’s 8:39 on the anchor leg. But Kara Gorman (8:41) and Riona Stewart (8:49) weren’t far behind and their result once again illustrated what this event is all about: teamwork.
“That was fun running against the older girls,” said Allan. “We really wanted to medal, and we have a great team which has really bonded, so that was great,” she added.
When Brentford Beagles are in the starting line-up, it’s safe to say they’ll be in the mix at the end. And so it proved as Lianne Esterhuysen (7:15), Emily Brewington (7:47) and Sophia Davies (6:58) proved just too powerful for their rivals, winning by 30 seconds.
“It’s really fun training together,” said Davies echoing every winning team’s thoughts. Chelmsford and Aldershot rounded out the top three.
Just a couple of races later, the Warriors Pentathlon club said exactly the same thing after their win in the U16 race. Eva Beddow (7:09), Daisy McVicar (7:19) and Roni Kohring (7:02) said they love working hard together and it is great fun!
The men’s junior race was combined with the U18s and like the women’s championships earlier in the day, produced similar results. St Mary’s won the juniors, but the rules meant it was City of Norwich who crossed the line in fourth who were the actual winners.
“It was still great to cross the line first; I’ve never done that before,” said St Marys’ Jacob Hurrell.
Meanwhile, behind him Michael Clarke ran a stunning 8:19 opening leg for Norwich to all but win it in the first 3km. “I knew there were some fast track runners in there, so I just put my head down and went for it in the woods,” he said.
In the accompanying U18 race, Herne Hill won their first of two titles (they also won the women’s race). James Clements-Nash (8:47), Thomas Clerkin (8:58) and Caspian Holmes (8:44) moved from third to first after leg two and were never headed. “I just dug deep and with 200 metres to go I knew we’d get gold,” said the anchor man, Holmes. And like the women before, mixing the age groups was an advantage for the younger athletes, Holmes and his teammates agreed. “There were a lot of fast boys out there, so it made you work really hard.”
Brighton and Hove were clear winners in the U16 race. After a tightly fought first leg which saw a dozen or so teams cross the line within 10 seconds, they eased into the lead and stayed there. Rory Grant (6:27), Harry Chapman (6:13) and George Urben (6:21) won by 12 seconds from Solihull and Small Heath with Gosforth Harriers a further four seconds back. “I just went for it from the beginning,” said Urben who looked in control the whole way.
The U14s race is often about surviving the manic start which sees the teams tear off in the opening quarter of a mile. Salford can claim to have done that, moving from third to second and finally first to take the national title. Zackary Magdzinski (6:51), James Lombard (7:00) and Isaac Taylor-Unitt (7:02) combined perfectly to take the gold with Herne Hill and Cambridge and Coleridge adding yet more medals to their collection for the day.
“We train together, and it felt really good today,” said Taylor-Unitt after his leg.
*All the results can be found here.
