Student cross-country runners set for BUCS battle in Cardiff
On Saturday more than 2000 student athletes will descend on Blackweir Fields in Cardiff for the British Universities and Colleges Cross Country Championships. Racing in the shadow of Cardiff Castle, many will have their faces daubed in paint with the colours of their institution. For quite a few it will be the highlight of the winter season.
Competitors will range from teenage ‘freshers’ who are mid-way through their first year at university, through to athletes like Jared Ward, a veteran American marathon star who finished sixth in the Olympic marathon in Rio in 2016 and now, aged 36, is studying for an MBA in global business at Oxford University.
Among his many achievements, Ward has a statistics degree from Brigham Young University, a marathon best of 2:09:25 set in Boston in 2019 and he is a father to six children. Given this, there will surely be a few jokes in Cardiff this weekend that he is almost old enough to be the dad of most of his younger rivals. It will be no laughing matter once the gun fires, though.
Ward is set to face, among others, Tomer Tarragano and Oliver Smart from Birmingham University. Tarragano won the men’s race at the Liverpool Cross Challenge earlier this winter whereas Smart took bronze in the 2024 BUCS cross-country behind runaway winner Will Barnicoat and Tarragano.
Such is Birmingham's strength, their named A-team on the eve of these championships did not include either Barnicoat and David Stone, who, outside BUCS, finished first and third in the European under-23 men's cross-country championships in December.
It is hard to tell what kind of shape Ward is in, but he showed an affinity to typically muddy cross-country conditions by emerging as winner of the Oxford vs Cambridge Varsity match in December.
The ground might be a little better in Cardiff this weekend. Despite recent heavy rain, Saturday is set to be largely dry and veteran race organiser Graham Finlayson tells AW: “The course is run on open parkland with some woodland section and a section of a stone dust and five road crossings. It is flat and it will be fast.”
The location is different to the Llandaff Fields course that has staged the Cardiff Cross Challenge in recent seasons, although Blackweir Park used to host Cross Challenge events in the past.
With Tarragano, Smart and Birmingham team-mates like Quinn Miel-Ingram likely to be leading the charge, Birmingham will be tough to beat in the men’s team competition. The recent European Cross Country Championships saw the West Midlands university supply around a quarter of the entire British squad and they will be in Cardiff in force.
Loughborough’s purple reign as kings of the student cross-country scene looks to be over, for the time being at any rate. Still, the East Midlands university will have runners like Will Rabjohns in contention and undoubtedly good strength in depth.
Last year’s event saw Birmingham win the men’s team race comfortably from Oxford, Loughborough and Cambridge.
Local runners will want to make their mark this weekend, too, such as Dafydd Jones from Cardiff University, plus athletes from Cardiff Met.
The 2024 women’s winner Amelia Quirk from Birmingham is not racing this time, so there will be a new champion. Birmingham still has a strong team, though, featuring athletes such as Jess Bailey, Holly Weedall, Poppy Tank and Kate Willis.
Loughborough are the defending women's team champions after having won a tight contest in 2024 from Birmingham and Cambridge. India Barwell, who led the Loughborough team last year in fourth place, is set to run again as well.
Cambridge look particularly impressive this time, with Niamh Bridson-Hubbard, Bea Wood and Poppy Craig-McFeely running well this winter.
In addition, watch out for Mia Waldmann of St Mary’s, Lizzie Wellsted of Leeds Beckett and Rebecca Flaherty of Oxford.
READ MORE: 2024 BUCS Cross coverage
Innes FitzGerald, however, will not be racing. A fresher at Exeter University, the two-time European under-20 cross-country champion is racing indoors instead.
Former winners of BUCS cross-country titles include Paula Radcliffe, Chris Thompson and Lisa Dobriskey but this weekend some new names will earn their place in the history books.
Look out for AW's coverage online and via our social media channels.
Timetable
11.30am – women's short race
12.15pm – men's short race
1.15pm – women's long race
2.15pm – men's long race
» Subscribe to AW magazine here, check out our new podcast here or sign up to our digital archive of back issues from 1945 to the present day here
