The final match of the 2025/26 Chiltern Cross Country League season brought the campaign to a close at Luton last weekend, with testing conditions at Stopsley Common providing a fitting end to a highly competitive winter.

5 of our athletes won their races; Ed Blythman (Senior Men), Oliver Weddell (U17 Men), Fraser Williams (U15 Boys), Poppy Makin (U13 Girls) and Imogen Murphy (U11 Girls). 

Across the age groups Bedford & County came away with 3 individual league titles and 5 team titles, finishing 2nd in the overall team competition behind Chiltern Harriers.

Ben Alcock ran a PB of 63:09 in the Barcelona Half Marathon yesterday (Sunday 15th February 2026), the second fastest ever by a Bedford & County athlete behind Matt Leach’s club record.

Mia Flynn claimed victory at the inaugural U16 England Athletics South Regional Winter Long Throws Championships 2026 in testing conditions at Lea Valley Athletics Centre.

Battling torrential rain and biting, horizontal winds, Mia delivered a composed and consistent performance. She produced three throws over 47 metres, with a best mark of 47.62m — an impressive result given the challenging weather.

Bedford athletes excelled at the England Age Group Championships with five athletes sharing three medals, three club indoor records and thee lifetime bests. 

Congratulations to Ed Foy on his new Club Senior Men's Indoor Shot record of 14.85m at Loughborough on Sunday 1^st February.

James Lawler, who recently rejoined the club, claimed the Silver Medal in the M50 age group at the British Masters 10K road championship in Chichester on 1^st February. His time of 33:15 knocked almost 2 minutes off the existing club M50 record.

Well done to everyone who ran in the Southern Cross Country Championships in Beckenham on Saturday. 

Bedford & County results:

Thaila-Jade Mason won the England bronze medal by the narrowest of margins with a personal best score of 3434 points in the England U20 Pentathlon Championships at Sheffield last weekend.

Following hurdles (9.23 sec.) and high jump (1.59m) she set a pb of 8.51m in the shot and leapt 5.74m in the long jump to leave her in 2^nd (English) place. However, a hamstring injury sustained in the long jump put her participation in the final event, the 800m, in doubt. 

Congratulations to Darren Kerr on another club record in the M55 Shot with 11.79m at the London Indoor Games on Sunday 18^th January.

The Eastern Indoor Athletics Championships are being held at Lee Valley Athletics Centre from 28^th February to 1^st March.

Entries are now open and close on the 10^th February.

Enter here: https://meets.rosterathletics.com/public/competitions/details/about?id=27968

Several Bedford & County athletes ran in the Valencia 10K on Sunday.

The stand-out performance was Ben Alcock’s fantastic club record – although his gun time shows 28:38, his chip time (thus his true time) was even quicker at 28:34.

Behind him, there were other excellent performances by club athletes. Sam Winters’ 30:39 shaved 3 seconds off his pb, whilst Alf Yabsley took over a minute off his previous best with 31:05. There were also excellent runs from Stan Willis (32:02) and Pete Benedickter (32:25) – both of which were highly commendable efforts given that they are just easing their way back into full training after long spells out thought injury and illness respectively. Ed Whiting (33:03 - PB) and Lauren Nichols (34:59) also put in strong performances. Alice Lambert is in fine form, running extremely well to achieve an outstanding PB of 35:17, following her PB of 17:03 at the Battersea 5K on New Years Eve. 

Well done to everyone that ran.