North London Cross Country Championships 2025

On Saturday 25th October the North London Cross Country Championships took place at our very own Trent Park, hosted by our Club of course, and Rob Scott and his large team of helpers deserve huge credit for putting on such a good race. It was a great course, marked out perfectly and the marshals were excellent, friendly and supportive of all runners making it a ‘pleasure’ to run. Our many Officials were excellent as always as were Richard McCormick, our tail runner on the day, and Anneli Sydenham as Team Manager who proved it is possible to herd cats. It’s thanks to all of these Barnet stalwarts giving up their time to make races happen that the rest of us get to compete. Thank you all!

The weather was perfect, sunny, cool and a little breezy and 30 Stags (compared to 13 the previous year) took advantage of the home setting to race. That number included a number of very new members (people are flocking to the Club at the moment attracted by the warm welcome, the great training and the opportunity to race a lot!) as well as some racing cross country for the first time since school which is a very long time ago in some cases!

Both men and women ran the same course of just under 8K, two laps, with a decent amount of elevation to keep us all honest. The women’s race (4 to score in each team) was first and needless to say Emma McCluskey led our women home with a great run on a course that it’s fair to say was not one of her favourites. Emma was followed home by Kathryn Ellis, shaking off a niggle, to record another great time and then our newest club member, Charlotte Caplan, who joined the week before and immediately signed up to race which is fantastic. Steph Harrison, who has recovered her racing mojo with a vengeance, was the final scorer in the A Team. In our B and C teams Yilka Istrefi and Charlotte Gilligan had fine runs too.

In the men’s race (6 to score in each team) a resurgent Will Morris led our men home (clearly being elected Chairman has gone to his legs!), closely followed by Alex Horton and Ed Fraser with whom he had a great battle. In 4th spot in our A team was Alex Shuker who wore track spikes for extra speed and it worked too. The always consistent Calvin Wu and the improving Will Cooper made up the rest of the A team. It was good to see Mike Walker racing and he led our B team home while another of our newer members David Ledger had a great race also. In the C team Brendan Dempsey and Andy Reynolds, both racing cross country for the first time in living memory, deservedly enjoyed their day out.

Both the men and women’s A teams came 5th which is a terrific result given the fierce competition on the day.

Great vibes, great Team Spirit and every single competitor gave it their all. Well done all of you!