2,000 students to contest BUCS Cross Country Championships at Temple Newsam in Leeds

On Saturday mornings, when a number of their peers are still sleeping off the effects of the night before, members of University of Leeds Cross Country Club take part in the Park Run with recreational runners of all backgrounds.

Not satisfied with a 5k, they then turn it into a further training session, continuing onto the course that will host Saturday’s races to gain as much knowledge about the terrain as possible.

It is all with the aim of finishing as high as possible in the team event at this Saturday’s BUCS XC, and also having a few runners place well individually.

“We’ve tried to get over as often as we can,” says Scott Taylor, the president of University of Leeds Cross Country Club.

“We do the Park Run most Saturdays at Temple Newsam and once that’s finished, we’ll head to the course and do a session round there.

“We also held our Varsity event over the exact same course last week. So we know the course well.”

That inside knowledge could come in handy for an event that has attracted huge participation numbers and some rising stars of British running.

More than 2,000 students from all corners of the British Isles will contest the four races; a women’s short-course (6.5k), men’s short (8k), women’s long (8k) and men’s long (10k).

Among the male competitors will be Will Barnicoat, who won the Under-23 at the European Cross Country Championships last year and travels up from Birmingham, and on the women’s side Alex Millard, who took silver at the same championships. In the past the national championships have been contested by the likes of triathlon’s Brownlee brothers, Beth Potter and Georgia Taylor-Brown, as well as marathon runner Phil Sesemann, which points to cross country being a discipline that attracts runners of all specialities.

“It’s not about setting personal bests,” continues Taylor, “more about how hard you push yourself on the day. If you run the same course each year, it’s the conditions that will make it a vastly different race, so it’s more about finishing position rather than time.”

Leeds is hosting the event for the first time since 2013, when it was staged at Bodington Hall, future site of the Brownlee Triathlon Centre.

It is back in Leeds thanks to a collaboration between the City Council, the University of Leeds and the cross-country club.

The route planned is one that excites the organisers.

Ritchie Gardner, another member of the host club, says: “Set on the disused golf course just south of the main Temple Newsam house, it promises to be challenging, with over triple the elevation of last year's championships. The route also allows for good spectating across most of the course as each race comprises of three looping laps.”

A well-attended event with dramatic competition across the four races can only aid the club’s ambition for wider recognition for university sport.

In the United States, collegiate sport is a billion dollar industry. In Britain, it is merely seen as an amateur gatepost on an athlete’s journey to professionalism.

“It would be nice for more recognition,” adds Taylor. “If we were to put the planning in and we can grow it would mean more people running it and a stronger field.”