The World Cross Country Championships were held in Tallahassee, Florida January 10th, taking place in weather conditions, unlike anything experienced here in Britain for cross country – the race being run in 25 degress and high humidity. The course was man made with artificial obstacles introduced into it, including a ramp, wooden obstacles, water pool, sand patches and firm ground too. Blackburn Harriers Matt Ramsden was running in his second race for GB – his first being the U23 European Cross Country Championships in portugal in December 2025 where he he placed 6th overall and first British counter. Flying out four days before the race was due to to be run, Matt was joined by his girl friend Georgia and team mate Ben in a surprise visit the day before the race.
(RESULTS)
The Senior Men’s race race was won by Jacob Kiplimo for the third year in a row, whilst the Senior Women’s race was won by Agnes Jebet Ngetich. Matt who had recently won the Ribble Valley 10k in 29.06 was in good form and was part of a four man British team including Rory Leonard, David Mullarkey and Jacob Cann. David Mullarkey was the first counter home for the team in 27th place (30.00) with Matt 2nd counter in 53rd (31.15), Jacob Cann in 71st (32.07) and Rory Leonard in 79th spot (32.50) – the four athletes combining to take 11th place in the team race. After the race had finished, the Club managed to catch up with Matt who shared his experience with us, commenting “To compete on the world stage after growing up watching the world cross felt quite surreal. The atmosphere was incredible but it was by far the hardest race I have ever done! The weather combined with the different obstacles on the course made it very difficult. I am happy with my run and happy to finish around some world class athletes. My aim was to get into the top 50 and I put myself in the right place and just missed out on the last lap. It was amazing to have Georgia and Ben surprise me by coming all the way out to support me, it made the race even more rewarding to celebrate with them!”
GB Team
Matt Ramsden
L-R Ben Makin – Matt Ramsden – Georgia Grooby
Matt & Georgia
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In contrast, on the same day, Blackburn Harriers were out at Blackpool’s Lawson Playing Fields for the latest Mid Lancs Cross Country League fixture on Saturday January 10th on a surprisingly sunny but chilly day, the temperatures not getting up much above four degrees. Scarlett Hamill and Scarlett Cothliff started the day for the Club in the U11 Girls race placing 40th and 42nd respectively with times of 11.02 and 11.14. Georgia Brambles continued her first season where she started off, by winning the U13 Girls race in a time of 8.32 – some 20 seconds in front of the 2nd placed runner from Kendal Mia Barron. Georgia was supported by Sophie Douglas who took 21st place (10.21), Mya Chadwick in 29th place (10.48) and Pippa Blackburn 36th in a time of 11.18. Our U13 Boys took 3rd place in the team race as Thomas Stewart led the lads home by winning the race in a time of 11.18, the same time being given to 2nd placed Jack Mitchell from Trawden. Next across the finish line was Edward Russell-Blackburn in 16th (12.17) with team mates Ben Hawksworth in 19th (12.40), Zachary Falencki (24th) running 12.59 and Harry Mitchell in 27th place (13.30). Millee Jordan was a confident winner of the U15 Girls race with a time of 11.32, taking the race by 17 seconds from Rossendale’s Alice Carr in 2nd spot. Bendict Raby and Max Unthank lined up in the U15 Boys race – Benedict taking a top 5 position with his time of 14.47 (5th) with Max placing 11th in a time 15.30.
Georgina Brambles
Thomas Stewart (90)
Millie Jordan
All Photographs on Blackburn Harriers Facebook Page (HERE) with support from Linzi Lancashire and Lianne Belshaw as the Club Photographers camera battery died during the senior womens race.
There were team wins for both the U17 Women and U17 Men on the day. Lottie Hesketh, Isabelle Perry, Agatha Taylor and Bella McCredie made up the U17 Women’s team which took 1st place with Lottie in 3rd (16.32), Isabelle in 4th (17.07), Agatha in 5th (17.17) and Bella in 12th (18.34). 29 runners lined up in the U17 Men’s race – 13 of them coming from Blackburn Harriers – the lads going on to win the team race. Winning the race and leading the team home was Sam Aspey in 20.24 – backed up by fine runs from Jack Wood 4th (20.54), Henry Ward 5th (21.00), Theo Robinson 8th (21.52), Will Grundy 9th (22.24), Tom Falencki 10th ( 22.28), Peter Sagar-Moss 11th ( 22.29), Max Belshaw 12th (22.46), Max Winstanley 15th (23.11), George Holman 16th (23.13), Loucas Lancashire 19th (23.37), Liam Bennison 20th (23.49), Thomas North 22nd (24.46).
Lottie Hesketh (109)
Sam Aspey
L-R Max Belshaw – Jack Wood – Henry Ward
Freya Neild had her best run so far over cross country coming home in 4th place in the Senior Women’s race with a time of 24.35 out of 123 runners and took 1st place in the U20 Women’s race too. Freya led the Harriers home to 2nd place in the Team Race with a total of 42 points behind the winners – Blackpool – who totaled 34 points. Ellen Sagar-Hesketh had her best run since taking a year off to have her baby when she placed 18th overall in a time of 26.54 followed by V40 Rebecca Ward in 20th spot with a fine run in 27.02 and 4th V40. Great to see Alanis Akin running in this, her first race for the Club, coming home in 63rd spot (30.27).
Freya Neild
Alanis-Sky Akin (117) – Rebecca Ward (146)
In the Senior Men’s Race – featuring 223 runners – nine Blackburn Harriers took part – Ben Akin, Ethan Cutler, Chris Marsden, Cameron Lambert, Mark Almond, Craig Greenhough, Chris Balderson, Ben Clarke, Gary Pearse. Working his way through the field, Ben Akin had a fine run to place 7th at the finish in a time of 30.26 in only his second race for the Club after placing 37th at the Ribble Valley 10k recently with a personal best time of 31.34. U20 Ethan in his first ever race over 10k in cross country finished in 27th spot (33.11) with team mates Chris Marsden – in his second race since coming back from injury – running 35.30 in 59th spot. Next came Cameron who was running his first race for the Club in 66th place (35.49), followed by V55 Mark (95th) running 37.41, V55 Craig in 126th spot (39.39), V60 Chris Balderson (164th) in 41.54, Ben Clarke with a time of 42.07 in 167th place, V60 Gary placing 187th in a time of 44.07.
Ben Akin (1000)
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On the same weekend, the Northern Indoor T&F Championships for U17 & U20 athletes was taking place over the weekend at the EIS in Sheffield. (RESULTS). The 60m event is usually the most populated and it proved th be the case again. In the U17’s Niam Boland clocked 8.54 in 5th place to qualify for the Semi-Final where she ran a seasons best time of 8.50 in 8th. U17 Tomi Birch qualified from Heat 2 in 7.57 (3rd) and in the Semi-Final ran 7.60 in 6th spot. Keir Michie ran 7.55 in Heat 6 (3rd) alongside team mate Jack Thompson clocking 8.20 in 6th in the same Heat. Keir qualified for the Semi-Final placing 6th in 7.57. U20 Charlie Palich had a good day qualifying from heat 2 in 2nd place running 7.15 and then, although missing out on the Final ran a new PB of 7.02 in 4th spot. U20 Daniel Nuttall clocked 7.43 in Heat 3 (4th) whilst Jacob Fisher clocked 7.45 in 5th place (Heat 5).George Whittaker went in the Senior Men’s 60m clocking 7.33 in 5th place (Heat 4).Moving up to the 400m and it was a fine but tiring day for U17 Matthew Sharples who ran three 400m races on the day – qualifying for the Semi-Final with 53.42 in winning Hear 4, clocking a seasons best 52.44 in 2nd polace in the Semi-Final and then clocking a new PB time of 51.03 in 4th spot in the Final. Oliver Jones was running his first race for Blackburn Harriers and kicked off his season with a new PB of 56.19, taking 4th place in Heat 1 of the U17 Men’s 400m. In the field events, U20 Claudia Longton placed 5th in the Triple Jump Final with a leap of 9.48m in her first competition of the season.
Day 2 started off for the Harriers with the 200m which saw U17 Niamh Boland – who like many of the athletes competing for Blackburn, were in their first competition of the season – posting a time of 28.69 in Heat 1 (3rd). U17 Jack Thompson placed 5th in Heat 2 running 25.95 whilst in Heat 3 U17 Louis George Drake ran a new PB of 26.89 in 4th spot. U17 Keir Michie clocked 24.09 3rd in Heat 5 as U20 Claudia Longton placed 5th in Heat 2 of the 200m in a time of 28.29. U20 Jacob Fisher clocked 23.81 (3rd) in Heat 2 followed in Heat 6 by U20 Men Charlie Palich and Daniel Nuttall – Charlie winning the Heat in a new PB time of 22.48 to go forward to the Semi-Final whilst Daniel placed 4th in a time of 24.28. Tamzin Osborne took the Bronze Medal for the U20 Women’s Pole Vault, clearing 2.90m in 3rd place, anad again, just her second competition of the season. Our second medal of the wekend came in the Senior Men’s 3000m where Joe Monk was in a race with Mark Bostock and Euan Brown – Joe came out of it with a Bronze medal in 3rd place clocking 8.38.28 and afterwards, told the Club that he was “Very pleased with the race and to medal which was the main aim. It was a very slow first 2km, running 5:57. From there the pace picked up a lot and I managed to come through strong for a 2:41 final km. That turn of pace is something I’ve struggled with previously but the final reps we do to work on pace at the end of sessions is helping a lot. Excited for the year ahead“. Charlie Palich set himself another new PB of 22.35 in the U20 Mens 200m Semi-Final – his third new personal best of the weekend – in qualifying for the Final where he ran 22.77 in 5th place – capping off a fine wekend for him.
L-R Daisy Roberts – Claudia Berry – Tamzin Osborne (Photo courtesy of Northern Athletics)
Photos courtesy of Anne Osborne
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Up in Scotland Helen Leigh was having another fine run following her good run at the Ribble Valley 10k in a time of 36.33 and 5th V40. At the Inter-Counties Cross Country Championships in Glasgow on Saturday January 10th, Helen finished 16th in the Women’s race and 1st V40 which comsolidated that form and no doubt there will be more to come over the rest of the winter season.. (RESULTS)
Helen Leigh
Finally and on a very different surface with V40 Dominic Bretherton in the Trails & Ale New Years Eve Race which saw 280 runners line up and Dominic finishing in 49th place in a time of 63.50 for the 12k route – the race being won by Cam Ronaldson in 49.29.. (RESULTS).
