On Saturday 1st November the National Cross Country Relay Championship at Mansfield witnessed another epic set of senior team results for HHH as we continue our awesome start to this season.
Our women brought home team silver medals for the first time on a senior podium at this event and our men’s 11th position was also unprecedented here. It was amazing and inspiring to see both of our A teams in the lead during the second leg of each race and however short lived this was this set us up for superb end results. Being in the lead gave us a taste of what might be possible one day.
By the time we arrived at the venue on Saturday, our expectation of women’s team medals was so strong we might have felt gutted if we had “only” come 4th, when our previous best ever position had been 5th in 2022. Our ladies more than did their job as although the very strong Belgrave team were clear in front by halfway we ended up almost 100m ahead of the 3rd team.
The welcome return of Saskia Millard kicked us off with a strong first leg around which she held 2nd for most of the lap before handing over a close 3rd clocking 9:47 for approx 3km.
Sophie Tooley raced into the lead on the next stage and although overhauled by one of Belgrave’s internationals as the lap unfolded her 10:20 put our own international Lucy Jones in a strong 2nd place going into the final leg.
The gap in front could not be closed but the fact that only the athlete ahead of her ran faster than Lucy of all anchor leg runners guaranteed she would not be caught. In safely bringing home silver medals around an essentially solo final lap, Lucy’s 9:42 was the 4th fastest female time overall of the day.
Our women’s B team were 28th of 122 teams and were the 2nd club B team. Darcie Hey ran 10:38 for 27th, then Katie Balme moved up to 16th with 10:28 and Julia Wedmore closed in 28th with 12:20 to round off a fun and successful race for our girl gang.
However exciting Saskia’s return was for the women and Lucy being the 4th fastest woman, our best individual HHH run was probably Sam Bramwell, who was phenomenal on the second men’s 5km leg, moving up from 23rd into the lead before being caught near the end of his rapid stint. As with Sophie, the only athlete who overtook was a former national XC champion.
Our men’s superb 11th place A team comprised track star Arlo Ludewick (23rd 15:20), Sam Bramwell (2nd 14:54), Tom O’Mahoney (9th 16:33) and Tom Austin (11th 15:51), while our B team ran well for 65th of 172 teams with Oli Walker (91st 17:17), Tom Patterson (67th 16:31), Deron Fagan (70th 18:50) and Calum Murphy (65th 18:27).
Our women now win national medals and our men are increasingly on the map at these events, having now placed 11th, 10th and 11th at the 3 National relay championships in 2025. Tom Austin was the only person to run all 3 of these A teams, with Tom O’Mahoney also at all 3, but in our B team at the National 12 Stage in April.
Geoff Jerwood