There's mud...then there's Parliament Hill Fields mud! Despite a welcome warm front raising the temperature and a rare appearance of the sun this winter, conditions underfoot at the SportsShoes National Cross Country Championships in London on Saturday 22 February 2025 were among the worst in living memory.

At least the traditional home of English cross country managed to host the famous climax to the domestic cross-country season, unlike Weston Park in Shropshire where the 2024 title event was postponed due to adverse weather – as reported here in runABC's news feed. 

The full programme of 10 races went ahead with almost 5,000 athletes representing their clubs in the prestigious event. An illustration of the glutinous surface that runners had to contend with came in the 137th English National Cross Country Championships for senior men when 1,781 finished the 12K course in just over two hours!

Parliament Hill was at its evil worst for the senior men's race as Richard Slade (Chiltern Harriers) powered away from the 2023 champion James Kingston (Tonbridge AC) on the third and final lap for victory in 43:52 by the hefty margin of 31 seconds. The bronze was claimed by Flurry Grierson, of the local Highgate Harriers club, who mirrored his third in the Southern Cross Country Championships at Beckenham last month. Bristol & West AC won team gold medals at both six and nine-to-score.

The 92nd senior women's English National title went to the 2022 champion – at the same venue – Jessica Gibbon (Reading AC, 29:19) who was even more dominant with a final cushion of 41 seconds over Amelia Quirk (Bracknell AC). Olivia Mathias (Newark AC) sprinted hard for the bronze. Leeds City AC packed their four scoring athletes into the top 37 places for team gold as 830 finished in 1:23:59.

The full results, including eight junior races, are available at runABC's race listing here.

Photo of Richard Slade, 2025 English National Champion, courtesy of Gary Mitchell