Good Evening, Race Report fans. And the Spring Marathon season is officially upon us! But before we get into that, and with apologies, a much belated result from 29 March. Two happy Harriers were in action in the British Sprint Distance Duathlon Championships. For the uninitiated, a reminder that duathlon is run-bike-run. The Oulton Park circuit was a 4.3k run route, and 21k of cycling. Hannah Wardley completed the test in 1.11.26, coming home as 3rd female and 1st in her age category, while Neil Turner was 2nd in his age category in a time of 1.05.49. Well done, both!

Hoppy Easter, Race Report fans! I hope you’ve had a fabulous long weekend. We have here in Race Report HQ: Nathan’s Farm (highly recommend), soft play and an unexpected rendezvous with various CHAC coaches in Hervine’s Park (for the purposes of admiring the bluebells, not a training session). 
 
And with that, back to the serious business of Race Reporting and here is a smorgasbord of the last few weeks. 

There were some good performances and several personal bests at the first Watford Open of the season at Woodside Stadium last Wednesday.
 
The conditions were good, a dry, still evening, but temperatures dropped for the 3000m races later in the evening.
 
100m
Race 1
Elly Konkader    U14                      15.45                   PB
 
1500m Section 1 (4.38 - 5.30)
Race 2
Thomas Cooper U14                    5.31.60               SB
 
Race 3
Jack Dixon U14                              5.27.89               SB
 
Race 4
Hector Gamblen U16                  5.02.10               PB
 
Race 6
Barnaby Williams U14                 4.59.50               PB
 
Race 7
Isaac McCall U16                          4.40.33               PB
Jacob McCall    U16                      4.48.76               PB
 
Race 8
Isaac Taylor U18                            4.47.80               SB
 
1500m Section 2 (Sub 4.38)
 
Race 1
James Malin U18                           4.26.79               PB
Harrison Lawrence U16              4.26.98               PB
James Henderson U18                4.37.04               SB
 
Race 2
Eddie O’Brien U18                        4.26.31               PB
Ben Reeder U18                            4.31.04               PB
 
Race 4
Charlie Quantrill U18                   4.12.31               PB
 
3000m
Race 2
Callum Powell U20                       9.10.53               PB
Jack Turner U20                             9.35.80               PB
 
Race 3
Alex Aldred SM                               8.33.14               PB

Intermediate Girls
The first race on the programme saw the Intermediate Girls tackle a 3.8k route round the gently undulating park, which was mostly in good shape, except for some challenging sticky mud sections. Maya Davis had a good run to round off her season, finishing fourth Bucks Schools scorer in 99th place. Megan Lockwood was sixth Bucks scorer in 255th. For Herts Schools Alex Whitfield was third scorer in 105th place. The Bucks Schools team was 14th, Herts Schools 18th.
 
Junior Boys
Harrison Lawrence was part of a very successful Bucks team that combined its six scorers to finish an excellent third. On a fairly short 3.2k course, Harris was fourth scorer in 67th and the Bucks team also featured the individual winner in Luis Da Silva and sixth placed Luca Dolan. They will run for England at the SIAB International in Bangor, north Wales next Saturday.
 
Junior Girls
There were three Chiltern girls scoring in the Bucks Schools Junior Girls team that ran the same route as the Junior Boys – second scorer Nell Frost in 62nd, third scorer Juliette MacDougall 67th and sixth scorer Aura Lue Fong 247th.
 
Intermediate Boys
The best individual Chiltern performance of the day came from Tom Ford, who ran with great calm and purpose on the Inter Boys 5k circuit to win the silver medal and book his place running for England Schools at Bangor. It will be Tom’s second vest having run for the country two years ago. Tom’s Herts Schools team was sixth.
 
Senior Girls
On a 4.4k route, Alice Peckham, fifth scorer in 133rd, and Lucinda McRonald, sixth scorer in 169th, were part of the Bucks Schools team that were 19th. Emily Ford had a good run to be third Herts scorer in 101st.
 
Senior Boys
Four Chiltern senior boys ran on a fast but taxing 6.3k course - Edward Johnson had a good run to be first Bucks Schools scorer in 50th, Alex Hughes was second scorer in 102nd, Callum Powell was fifth scorer in 172nd, and Jack Turner was 289th.

Happy Mother’s Day, Harriers. I hope you enjoyed the sun when it appeared this weekend. But before we get on to this weekend, let’s hark back to the last one. The Moss duo took on the legendary Grizzly in Seaton, Devon. Braving bogs, hills and 20 miles, both Richard and Sylvia came home in 4.20.29. Bravo!
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Also a shout-out and an apology to James Hudson, who I missed from last week’s results from the Amersham Ultra. James finished a very impressive 6th place in a time of 4.11.59.

The National Inter Counties was held again at Wollaton Hall in Nottingham on Saturday and, on a grey, dry and still day, the course held up very well despite the heavy rain of February. The race also featured the climax of the season-long series of British Cross Challenge races.
There was good representation from Chiltern Harriers athletes at this biggest and best of the end of season cross country championships. Twenty-seven Chiltern runners took part for Buckinghamshire or Hertfordshire teams.
 
U20 Men
Alex Hughes and Jack Turner were the only two Bucks U20 Men taking part and finished 96th and 144th respectively. Callum Powell was the third scorer in the Herts team that came 11th to be 108th.
 
U13 Girls
Chloe Willson led in the Herts team in an impressive 35th. There was a good Chiltern presence in the Bucks team with Sunaya Nanda first scorer in 101st, Aura Lue Fong second scorer in 129th and Lottie Monnington fourth scorer in 145th. Herts were 16th, Bucks 27th.
 
Senior Women
Bucks fielded a full team for the first time in many years. Katie Repper was first scorer in 113th, Charlotte Docwra third scorer in 190th and Katie Royals fourth scorer in 194th. The team was 27th. Meanwhile Bev Whitfield had a good run to be fourth scorer in the Herts team that was 14th, coming an impressive 116th.
 
U15 Boys
Harrison Lawrence in 198th and Isaac McCall in 208th were sixth and seventh finishers in the Bucks team that was 20th.
 
U17 Women
Alex Whitfield was the leading Herts runner, coming 54th .
 
U17 Men
There was good Chiltern representation in this one with Tom Ford leading in the Herts team in 25th. For Bucks Edward Johnson was second scorer in 43rd, James Malin fourth scorer in 175th, James Holdsworth fifth finisher in 177th.
 
U13 Boys
William Clasby was sixth Bucks finisher in 120th.
 
U20 Women
Jocelyn Davies was the leading Bucks runner, coming a strong 82nd and Emily Ford was second Herts scorer in 85th.
 
U15 Girls
The Bucks team were eighth in this one. Juliette MacDougall was third scorer in 61st, Nell Frost fourth scorer in 86th, Maya Davis fifth finisher in 143rd and Annie-Rose Quantrill sixth finisher in 213th.
 
Senior Men
The highest placed Chiltern athlete of the day was Richard Slade who had another strong run to be third in the Senior Men’s race. This confirmed Richard as bronze medallist in the Cross Challenge standings. Also competing for Bucks was Tim Lawrence who was seventh county finisher in 192nd.

This year it was the turn of the Northern Cross-Country Association to host the National Club Championships and Sedgefield Harriers organised a great event. The course was undulating, surprisingly firm underfoot, and very spectator friendly.
Three Chiltern Harriers Senior Men competed in the Championships. The 12k race was very fast paced from the start, with the first kilometre taking only 2:44 and the race continued in that vein for the remaining 11km. Three men, including Richard Slade, had broken away from the field by the end of the first lap. The fierce pace set by Hugo Milner resulted in Richard being dropped on the 2nd lap of three and he eventually finished 3rd, the second consecutive year he has finished on the podium.
Simon Bossi, running in his first English National Championships, ran very well to finish 61st.and said he’d enjoyed his first visit to the North.  Jonny Slade was the 3rd Chiltern competitor, and ran hard to finish 531st, importantly ahead of his training partner!
There were 1046 finishers.
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Happy International Women’s Day, CHAC. I hope you’ve enjoyed the day, despite the rather gloomy weather.

Congratulations to all who took part in yesterday’s Intercounties Cross Country in Nottingham. Look out for a report from Steve Perkin  Meanwhile Chiltern were well-represented at the XNRG Humanity Direct Amersham event, braving the perils of a muddy Herberts Hole and Chess Valley after the wet start to 2026. Lindsay Turner and Ben Hannen were in action in the 50k, clocking times of 6.23.36 and 6.42.04, respectively.  Paul McCarthy did brilliantly to finish 3rd overall in the 25k in a time of 2.12.07. He was joined by: Tim Margetts (5th place) in 2.23.59; Lauren Mayot (1st in age category) in 2.33.30; Heidi Folkard (2.41.20); and Doug Smith (3.03.13). Well done, all!

Happy St David’s Day, Race Report Fans! I hope the daffodils have been smiling at you, wherever you are.

Let’s kick things off with something a little bit different. Stateside Chisom Nwafor was competing for Kansas State University at the prestigious “Big 12 Indoor” Championship in Lubbock, Texas (27 – 28 February). Her long jump of 6.51m put Chisom at the top the UK Senior Women’s rankings – an absolutely insane achievement. This reporter can only look on in awe and look forward to maybe having the honour of raking the sand for Chisom when she is back home sometime and fancies a dally at the Southern Athletics League…

Season Best 2026 - compiled by Steve Perkin