Triumph for the duo in senior races at the UK Cross Challenge final in Nottingham on Saturday.
Wollaton Hall was recommissioned for the UK Inter-County Cross Country Championships which, for the men, celebrated 100 years of competition. In the senior races, James Kingston and Jess Gibbon won, but on Saturday (March 7) athletes from multiple age groups battled it out for UK Cross Challenge honours.
The race began with a para-athlete test, but in which only nine men and one girl competed, in addition to the tests for children under 11 years old, on a course without mud. There, only 25 boys and 16 girls finished, leaving many doubting the wisdom of having that age group at this level.
older men
Theirs was the last race of the day and it was Kingston who set most of the pace, although Jacob Cann also showed himself in front at the end of the first short 2km lap.
Things were tight there after a dozen riders soon opened a gap to the rest, but Kingston’s pressure soon became apparent and after three laps and 7km of the four-lap race it was down to just two as Cann was the only one to make the decision.
Richard Slade was in the lead at mid-race, but was 50 meters down and eventual fourth-placed McMillan was 80 meters further down on the final lap. His Yorkshire took the team gold medal.
Kingston said: “I think I’ve done most of the work and after 12 weeks of 100 miles a week, you know you’re strong.”
He then reflected on his defeat to Hugo Milner in the English National at Sedgefield and said he was “disappointed” to lose, but added: “I now have six national and inter-county medals in recent years.”
Today’s inter-county victory added to the 24-year-old’s English title in 2023 and silver and bronze in the same two events.
Kingston finished by saying, “I’ll have an off week and then I’ll go for the (road) relays.”
Men: 1J Kingston (Kent) 29:15; 2 J Cann (Sx) 29:32; 3R Slade (Bucks) 30:02; 4 To McMillan (Yorks) 30;17; 5 E Buck (Notts) 30:33; 6 C Charleston (Ex) 30:37
TEAM (6 to score): 1 Yorks194; 2 Surrey 217; 3 N East 258; 5 Northern Ireland 261; 5Lincolnshire 336; 6G Manchester 384
TEAM (9 to score): 1 N East 520; 2Lincolnshire 785; 3G Manchester 787
older women
Gibbon comfortably retained her senior women’s title and did so in similar fashion to last year, although the final margin of victory was narrower.
The 29-year-old from Reading was content to sit in a three-person group alongside Eleanor Curran and Niamh Bridson-Hubbard before breaking loose on the final lap.
Previously, Kate O’Neill had been present on the trip, but soon lost contact.
These three seemed to take turns up front, but it was starter Gibbon who seemed calmer.
Then, as in 2025, it was a last-lap effort that earned victory over Curran and Bridson-Hubbard.
Gibbon then reflected on his fourth place finish at the Nationals in England: “I had convinced myself I had an injury and I didn’t do so well at the Nationals, which was a bit of a rollercoaster, but I didn’t do it.”
Then, talking about the Inter-Counties, he added: “I feel like I’m good at these races and I like the purity of cross-country.”
Back in an isolated fourth place, for much of the race Niamh Brown led a complete domination of the Surrey team as the veteran Yellows closed out their home score of six in the top 30 positions, while the rest of the counties were simply over 200 point underdogs.
Women: 1J Gibbon (Oxon) 27:26; 2E Curran (Leeds) 27:33; 3 N Bridson-Hubbard (Kent) 27:36; 4N Brown (Surrey) 28:06; 5 K O’Neill (Ex) 28:21; 6R Roberts (NI) 28:26
EQUIPMENT: 1Surrey 100; 2 NIV 303; 3Yorkshire 307; 4 N East 327; 5 Lancashire 328; 6 Cornwall 333
Young athletes (male)
Many favorites took home gold medals and the first of the recognized inter-county events was the junior men’s event where Alex Lennon took gold.
The first leader was Yorkshire’s Jack Sanderson as 11 runners had pulled away after two miles, but the field soon thinned out before only Lennon and Sanderson were left to contest the third and final lap.
Lennon then raced up the hill towards the famous Wollaton Hall before a celebratory race to the finish and victory for the 17-year-old from Surrey, who won the under-17 event here last year.
He was only competing in his third race of the year after a trip to the World Cross and a 14:22 in the podium 5K road race eight days earlier.
Speaking of the initial pace, Lennon said, “It was going too slow,” before things began to split up. Regarding the field, he added that, in fact, it was “sticky in places.”
Again in third place, Jack Sanderson led a Scottish double in the team competition as Scotland West topped Scotland East ahead of Lennon’s Surrey.
Another race in which the favorite prevailed was the men’s under-17 event, where English national champion Rory Barclay-Watt again handed a defeat to Joseph Scanes, who was third at Sedgefield.
Speaking of his tactics, the 17-year-old said: “I was hoping to come into the hills strong.”
This effectively meant that the Devon rider was in control at all times. He said he now plans a track season based on distances of 3,000 to 5,000 m.
The team race here was another win for the West of Scotland, even though Scanes’ Kent also had Joseph Hill in third.
The under-15 men’s race was close before English national winner Theo Creed got the nod over Taylor Thorn-Watts. He said: “It was only after going up the last hill and rounding the bend that I got it.”
The Surrey runner had taken the under-13 title here last year.
Luis Da Silva was another English National Championship winner and favourite, he came in well and was probably the tallest runner in the field and led all the way to take the men’s under-13 event, later saying he “hoped to win”.
Under 20 Men: 1 To Lennon (Sy) 24:34; 2 J Sanderson (Yorks) 24:39; 3 J Alexander W Scottish) 24:57; 4C Benyan (Camb) 25:04; 5S Wilson (Glouc) 25:10; 6 C Collins (Threshing) 25:15
EQUIPMENT: 1 Scotland West 57; 2 Scotland East 81; 3 Surrey 82
U17: 1 R Barclay-Watt (Dev) 18:48; J Scanes (Kent) 18:59; 3J Hill (Kent) 19:03; 4F Rowe (Ex) 19:08; 5D Kinnard (W Scotland) 19:15; 6 J Ireland (Chesh) 19:16
EQUIPMENT: 1 Scotland West 75; 2Yorkshire 105; 3Suffolk 114
U15: 1T Creed (Sy) 13:19; 2 T Thorn-Watts (Sx) 13:20; 3 J Osuji (Jesh) 13:38; 4 N Greig (S Wales) 13:43; 5 J Summers (Herts) 13:44; 6M Lamy (Mx) 13:44
EQUIPMENT: 1 Middx 44; 2 Surrey 63; 3 E Scotland 85
U13: 1L Da Silva (Mx) 10:40; 2P Friedrich (Hants) 10:45; 3 G Fisher (Jesh) 10:53
EQUIPMENT: 1Kent 77; 2 South Wales 83; 3 songs 109
Young athletes (women)
The U20 women’s race was closely contested between Ava James and Katie Pye before James prevailed on the final hill.
The Sussex runner was ahead from the early stages and distanced Pye from the rest of the field before opening up in the final part of the race.
James seemed surprised by his victory and said: “Pye had a really good race and I was just hoping to get into the top 10”, and this was after a third place finish in the English National Championships.
Back in third here, national runner-up Maisey Bellwood was first home for third-placed Yorkshire but, along with James’ Sussex, were comfortably beaten by Eva Jha’s sixth-placed Cheshire.
Beth Lewis was another favorite to come out on top in the under-17 girls event. The Humber runner came home 20 seconds ahead of Kitty Scott, who nonetheless led her Surrey quartet to team gold.
However, the first leader was Sophia Chapman before three other runners escaped. Lewis was there along with Scott and Sabrina Coppola-Johanssen before Eleanor Foster joined in the fun.
However, it was Lewis who opened up a huge lead on the final circuit leaving Scott adrift. She said: “I knew it was going to be a difficult course, but keep going.”
In the penultimate race of the day, U15 Gabrielle Pinder scored with a comfortable victory over Isabella Buchanen, while Olivia Lee took third place with Summer Smith.
Pinder said: “I had to lead most of the way and I was hoping I could finish it.”
The safest favorite on the day was the under-13 girls winner, Madison Kindler, who, like Da Silva, in the men’s event was the tallest runner in the race and also retained her title, but it was second placed Sienna Lavine, who led Yorkshire to their second team title.
Under 20 Women: 1 To James (Sx) 21:40; 2K Pye (Sy) 21:46; 3M Bellwood (Yorks) 22:08; 4 I Edwards (Hants) 22:18; 5 E Wells (Threshing) 22:22; 6 E Jha (Jesh) 22:34
EQUIPMENT: 1 Cheshire 69; 2Sussex 88; 3 Yorkshire 90
U17: 1 B Lewis (humble) 18:05; 2K Scott (Sy) 18:25; 3 E Foster (Dev) 18:42; 4 S Coppola-Johanssen (Sy) 18:48; 5D Connor (Sx) 18:50; 6 S Chapman (Bucks) 18:51
EQUIPMENT: 1 Surrey 32; 2Yorkshire 80; 3 sussex 102
U15: 1 G Pinder (NE) 14:48; 2 I Buchanen (Sx) 14:57; 3 O Lee (Derby) 15:02; 4 S Smith (Ex) 15:02; 5 P Guest (Sy) 15:14; 6C Whysall (Notts) 15:23
EQUIPMENT: 1Yorkshire 54; 2Essex 82; 3 Surrey 100
U13: 1 M Kindler (Ex) 11:37; 2S Lavine (Yorks) 11:50; 3S Davies (Mx) 11:54
EQUIPMENT: 1Yorkshire 61; 2 Middx 73; 3 Surrey 86
