When New Hall won the women’s race, Loughborough College took its first men’s title on 28 January.
New Hall’s girls made it three out of three in the prestigious King Henry VIII Relays, while Loughborough College dominated good opposition for their first men’s title. James Taylor reports.
The two winning schools only began attending this race in 2024 and both quickly achieved success. Not to be confused with Loughborough Grammar, winner a decade ago with Ben Dijkstra, Loughborough College is part of a larger conglomerate of 16+ education providers, with close links to the college. With a national catchment area (two of this year’s team are from Kent), a host of internal sports academy programs and an evident professionalism in approach, their newfound interest and competitiveness in this race is ominous for the traditional school opposition.
King Henry’s always attracts great interest among veterans, much to the delight of race organiser, Tom Andrews, who has worked so hard to harness the prestige of this historic event. But it was the younger fans who were happiest to meet Olympic medalist Charlie Dobson as this year’s guest of honour. And with Martyn Rooney coaching the Loughborough team, it was a disconcerting sight to see two world-class 400m runners skulking around the 2.3 mile multi-terrain course, which was muddier than usual and even suffered a small flooded section on tarmac with 1km to go.
Any doubts about how this would affect the athletes were answered by Jack Sanderson on the first of the boys’ six stages, the Giggleswick man’s 29:45 10km dominated the field, pushing all the way for a superb timing of 10:57, a rare sub-11 time that many did not believe was possible given the ground conditions. Behind, Ben Allen (11:21), Jake Norris (11:22) and Ewen Wilkinson (11:26) made excellent starts for expected title challengers Loughbough, Ilkley and Ermysted respectively, the latter the defending champions. Judd, a nine-time champion, had hoped to start strong as well, but he was already more than a minute behind and, for the first time in a generation, would not participate.
Giggleswick fell back immediately in the second stage, but other than that did not slow down in what is generally a smooth stage. National champions Ilkley, making their debut in this race, and many aiming for victory, Alex Wolfenden (11:47) took the lead with Loughbough’s Oliver Ward (11:58) close behind. Abingdon continued their excellent start with Monty Salmon’s fastest time of the stage, 11:38.
Ilkley dropped back mid-race and it became clear they were not at full strength so Loughborough took a lead they were not going to lose, Henry Haslam ran in a very solid time of 11:58. There was little change among the other chasers, although deep in the field, Oscar Graffin moved ahead of Skinners in the order with the fastest leg 11:51.
The status quo remained in the fourth leg: Loughborough was the slowest with Tyler Morris (12:14), but the lead still grew, now over a minute. Judd finally came within sight of the podium thanks to Will Bachelor’s 11:46, although this was as good as it got for Team Kent, who now accepted that their 17-year streak on the podium was over. Pio Aran (Loreto College) followed Bachelor in 11:38, the fastest time of the stage.
Ollie Scott (11:55) extended Loughborough’s lead further with the choice of stage five, so attention turned to the battle for second place: Abingdon and Ermysted’s were united throughout, with St Anselm’s in an ominous position.
On to the final leg, and a procession for Will Bailey, whose 11:52 gave Loughborough a two-minute victory and the team’s fifth-fastest time since the course changes of 1991. In a thrilling race for the podium, charging St Anselm’s, Michael Phelan overtook Abingdon and then, in the final corner, Ermysted’s, to secure the Merseysiders their best result for a decade. Ilkley made quick work of captain Owen Ashdown in 11:51, even as he ran out of a path to the podium. It would have been interesting to see if the entire Cup final team could have challenged for gold. A footnote to the final stage was Harrow’s Otis Farrer-Brown’s time of 11:44, but he probably wished he was at an earlier stage to have more impact.
The women’s race followed a similar pattern in its four stages, with a clear winner and a fight for the podium behind. Like last year, Heidi Woodley took the first leg for New Hall in a PB 12:54, which remained unbeaten throughout the day. Daisy Stollery took over and ran a solid 14:06, only giving up three seconds to the fastest of the stage, Matilda Don (Ratcliffe). Ava King (14:02) continued to build the lead on the third leg, now from West Kirby, and with Olivia Forrest on the final leg the result was not in doubt.
Forrest isn’t on the 12:24 time that gave him the third-fastest split of all time two years ago, but his anchor split of 13:44 will give him some confidence for the remainder of the season. West Kirby set Isla Yorke to the fastest time of the stage, 13:25, to secure a clear silver, while in a thrilling race for bronze, Chloe Berry held on for Woodbridge, whose steady foursome ended Upton Hall’s five-year podium streak.
With only a few minor school races ahead, the focus for the elites will be the major national English club, county and school races in February and March.
Full results here.
