Club runners took to the turf at Tatton Park in Knutsford on January 25 to fight for medals in this historic championship

Angus McMillan and Lauren Heyes took the senior titles at a gloriously sunny Tatton Park where nearly 400 men and over 200 women finished in the parkland.

Salford and City of Leeds took senior team golds.

Men

It was close in the senior men’s race as Tommy Power and Harry Wakefield added the minor podium places but it was the in-form Angus McMillan, the triple Yorkshire champion who came out on top.

A beaten second last year, McMillan had ‘won’ the competitive first stage of the Autumn Northern Road Relay and posted a second-place finish in the Berry Hill Park cross-country relays first stage in November.

Second placed Tommy Power had been headed by McMillan in that Yorkshire event at the beginning of January, a race which showed improvement on the Hallamshire runner’s eighth spot in the Northern last year.

Back in a close third, Harry Wakefield led Salford to the team title but has only been active in running for a bout five years and now races mainly on the track where the England Athletics 1500-metre title came his way last year.

It was his first major cross-country championship outing so third spot and top team was good reward.

Men: 1 A McMillan (York) 35:57; 2 T Power (Hallam) 36:03; 3 H Wakefield (Salf) 36:07; 4 R Allen (Leeds) 36:16; 5 M Wharton (Sale) 36:32; 6 M Nuttall (B’burn) 36:32

TEAM: 1 Salford 106; 2 Leeds114; 3 Sale 167

Women

Lauren Heyes has much more experience of championship running and stretched the field out before winning comfortably from Sophie Tarver by about 150-metres.

Katy Wood was a similar distance further back in third spot but the team title went to City of Leeds, who were led home by fourth placed Jenny Walsh and closed their scoring four in the top nine places.

More than 16 years ago, Heyes ran in the world and European cross-country championships with a third spot in the 2008 Euro junior race standing out, before several more representative honours in Euro and World events.

Since then, the Hallamshire Harrier has been a constant presence after winning the Northern under-20 title in 2009 and was second in this race last year and in 2018 and 2019.

For Tarver, who moved up from third last year, this was a first 2025 outing and replicated her second spot from 2022.

Yorkshire champion Katy Wood produced her best run on the country although has been popping in a series of good quality 5000m and 5km races.

Women: 1 L Heyes (Hallam) 26:54; 2 S Tarver (Wirral) 27:20; 3 K Wood (York) 27:42; 4 J Walsh (Leeds) 27:58; 5 C McKnespiey (Leeds) 28:08; 6 F O’Hare (Liv) 28:19

TEAM: 1 Leeds 26; 2 Sale 77; 3 Hallamshire 95

Young Athletes

Ethiopian asylum seeker Biruk Kebede and Abdimajiid Darood comfortably got the better of leading English born Joe Dixon in the junior men’s race, but his Morpeth club took no prisoners in the team stakes.

Kebede says on his Power of 10 page: “I am an asylum seeker living in the UK, I dream of one day representing GB at the Olympics like my hero Mo Farah,” and declared that he was an athlete in training in his home country.

In turn, Darood has been winning Yorkshire titles for over five years.

The under-17 men’s race saw Matthew Drummond-Clark, the English Schools 1500m champion, win narrowly from Merseyside champion, Liam Johnson as fifth paced Pio Aaron led Trafford’s winning team from fifth spot.

The closest boys race of the day was in the under-15 event, where Yaried Alem, the English Schools champion, just got the nod on Adrian White, the England Athletics 3000m champion, to move up from third last year.

Last November Thomas Hastings had ‘won’ leg one in the Berry Hill Park under-13 relays and then took the Yorkshire championship earlier this month and now the North of England title over Ollie Curran.

It was even closer in the junior women’s race where winner Amelie Lane who retained her title and runner up Elena Inch could not be separated on rounded up times. Most of the winner’s outings are over the country with no track racing, unlike Inch who races over 800m a lot.

At the start of the month, Ellarose Whitworth had braved the icy weather and bitterly cold weather in the Wolds to take the Lincolnshire title so here, found the winter sun a blessed relief when winning by around 80-metres from Maisie Bellwood, who was only fourth in the Yorkshire Championship earlier in the month.

North East Counties champion Gabrielle Pinder, who was only fourth last year, had a similar margin in the under-15 girls’ race when winning from Olivia Lee, who was third in the delayed English National under-13 race in September.

Here in the Northern under-13 outing, Sienna Lavine added to her Yorkshire title from earlier in the month by again heading Jessica Thake, seventh last year.

U20 Men: 1 B Kebede (CleM) 24:30; 2 A Darood (Skyrac) 24:53; 3 J Dixon (Morp) 24:55

TEAM: 1 Morpeth 26; 2 Wirral 55; 3 Vale Royal 62

U17: 1 M Drummond-Clark (Prest) 17:46; 2 L Johnson (St Hel S) 17:49; 3 D Watson (NSP) 17:59

TEAM: 1 Trafford 58; 2 Preston 93; 3 Keighley & Craven 127

U15: 1 Y Alem (Leeds) 12:47; 2 A White (Traff) 12:48; 3 J Ireland (Macc) 12;49

TEAM: 1 Hallamshire 66; 2 Southport W 998; 3 Trafford 101

U13: 1 T Hastings (Wake) 9:49; 2 O Curran (Darl) 9:54; 3 N Penfold (NSP) 9:57

TEAM: 1 Preston 31; 2 Liverpool 105; 3 Darlington 112

U20 women: 1 A Lane (Wharf) 20:20; 2 E E Inch (Sheff & D) 20:20; 3 G Bell (Leven V) 20:29

TEAM: 1 Salford 46; 2 Vale R 63; 3 Warriors Pentathlon 93

U17: 1 E Whitworth (Linc W) 1755; 2 M Bellward (K&C) 18:15; 3 J Wright (Salf) 18:25

TEAM: 1 Rotherham 77; 2 Salford 87; 3 Liverpool 137

U15: 1 G Pinder (N Marske) 13:50; 2 O Lee (Der) 14:14; 3 I Yorke (Warriors) 14:21

TEAM: 1 Sale 63; 2 Rotherham 81; 3 Leeds 108

U13: 1 S Lavine (P’fract) 10:22; 2 J Thake (Hallam) 10:33; 3 M McGoldrick (Settle) 10:45

TEAM: 1 Liverpool 53; 2 Warriors 57; 3 Lincoln Wellington 99

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