As New Hall won the girls race, Loughborough College took their first boys’ title on January 28.
New Hall girls made it three from three at the prestigious King Henry VIII Relays while Loughborough College dominated good opposition for their first boys’ title, James Taylor reports.
Both winning schools only started attending this race in 2024 and both have been quick to find success. Not to be confused with Loughborough Grammar, winners a decade ago with Ben Dijkstra, Loughborough College are part of a larger conglomerate of post-16 education providers, with close links to the university. With a national-scale catchment (two of this year’s team are from Kent), a host of in-house sports academy programmes and obvious professionalism in approach, their new interest and competitiveness in this race is ominous for the traditional school opposition.
King Henry’s always attract a healthy interest from old-timers, to the delight of race organiser Tom Andrews, who has worked so hard to build on the prestige of this historic fixture. But it was younger fans who were most pleased to meet Olympic medallist Charlie Dobson as this year’s guest-of-honour. And with Martyn Rooney coaching the Loughborough team, it was a bemusing sight to see two world-class 400m runners prowling around the multi-terrain 2.3 mile course, which was muddier than usual and even suffered a small flooded section over the tarmac at 1km to go.
Any doubts about how this would affect the athletes were answered by Jack Sanderson on the first of six boys’ legs, the 29:45 10km Giggleswick man dominating the field, pushing all the way in for a superb 10:57 clocking, a rare sub-11 time which many did not think possible given the underfoot conditions. Behind, Ben Allen (11:21), Jake Norris (11:22) and Ewen Wilkinson (11:26) all delivered excellent starts for the expected title challengers Loughbough, Ilkley and Ermysted’s respectively, the latter the defending champions. Nine-time champions Judd had hoped to start strongly too, but found themselves over a minute adrift already, and for the first time in a generation, would not feature.
Giggleswick would immediately drop back on leg two, but aside, there was no let up in the pace on what is usually a soft leg. National champions Ilkley, on their debut at this race, and many peoples’ tip for victory, had Alex Wolfenden (11:47) take the lead with Loughbough’s Oliver Ward (11:58) tracking closely. Abingdon continued their excellent start with Monty Salmon’s stage-fastest 11:38.
Ilkley dropped back mid-race it became apparent they were not at full strength, so Loughborough surged into a lead they were not to lose, Henry Haslam running a very solid 11:58. There was little change among the other chasers, though deep in the field, Oscar Graffin brought Skinners’ up the order with the leg-fastest 11:51.
The status quo remained on stage four – Loughborough had their slowest with Tyler Morris (12:14) yet still the lead grew, now over a minute. Judd finally got within sight of the podium through Will Bachelor’s 11:46, though this was as good as it got for the Kent squad, who were now accepting that their 17-year podium streak was over. Pio Aran (Loreto College) tracked Bachelor for the stage-fastest 11:38.
Ollie Scott (11:55) further extended the Loughborough lead with the pick of leg five, so attention turned to the battle for second: Abingdon and Ermysted’s were locked together throughout, with St Anselm’s poised ominously.
Onto the last leg, and a procession for Will Bailey, whose 11:52 gave Loughborough a two-minute win and the fifth-fastest team time since the 1991 course changes. In a thrilling race for the podium, back-loading St Anselm’s had Michael Phelan sweep past Abingdon and then, at the final corner, Ermysted’s, to secure the Merseysiders their best result in a decade. Ilkley had captain Owen Ashdown closing fast in 11:51, alas he ran out of road to make the podium. It would have been interesting to have seen whether their full Cup Final team could have challenged for gold. A footnote to the final stage was Harrow’s Otis Farrer-Brown’s 11:44, but he probably wished he was on an earlier leg to have more impact.
The concurrent girls’ race followed a similar pattern for their four legs, with a clear winner and a scramble for the podium behind. Like last year, Heidi Woodley took the first stage for New Hall in a PB 12:54, which remained unbeaten all day. Daisy Stollery took over and ran a solid 14:06, which only gave away three seconds to the stage-fastest Matilda Don (Ratcliffe). Ava King (14:02) continued to build the leg three lead, now from West Kirby, and with Olivia Forrest on the last leg the result was not in doubt.
Forrest is not in the 12:24 form that gave her the 3rd fastest all-time split two years ago, but her 13:44 anchor leg will give her some confidence for the remaining season. West Kirby had Isla Yorke deliver the stage-fastest 13:25 to secure a clear silver, while in an exciting race for bronze, Chloe Berry held on for Woodbridge, whose consistent quartet ended Upton Hall’s five-year podium streak.
With only a few minor school races to follow, the focus for the elites will be the major national club, county and English Schools races to come in February and March.
Full results here.
