As the cross-country season nears its end thousands of athletes and spectators flooded to Cardiff on the weekend of February 1, 2025 for one of the biggest events on the calendar, the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) Cross Country Championships.

Every year universities and colleges from across Britain will send their best athletes to compete for BUCS fame and glory, and to have a fun weekend too of course!

The format of the event will have been familiar to those who have competed before, with two different races available for each gender.

Races took place at Blackweir fields, just outside the city centre of Cardiff. The general consensus from athletes was the course was “flat” with “a few muddy patches as the day went on”.

The short race consisted of a 5.59Km race for the women and an 8.21Km for the men. Whereas the long race featured the same course for the women as the men’s short (8.21Km) and the men’s long was a whopping 10.87Km.

The day started with the women’s short race, kicking off at 11:30. The victor ended up being University of Birmingham athlete, Eleanor Strevens, in a time of 18 minutes 38 seconds. She led a Birmingham 1-2-3 to dominate the podium here at the capital.

As for the men, their short race began 45 minutes later, at 12:15. This race was won by Jack Small of the talented Loughborough University. His win doubles his BUCS Cross Country titles, as he won the same race last year.

The women’s long race was up next, and Birmingham again were among the podium finishers. Teammates Jess Bailey and Poppy Tank took the top two spots for the Brummies, with Bailey crashing over the line after a tiring, but amazing performance.

Just a reminder that Bailey is only 18 years old and still a first year. Perhaps many victories to come throughout her university career representing University of Birmingham.

Finally it was the turn of the men, to trek across 10.87Km of Welsh soil. The race promised to be a cracker, but I don’t think I expected it to be so competitive – with only around two and a half Kilometres to go we still had 20 men left in with a shout of the title.

As the race drew closer and closer to its conclusion one man broke away to continue the trend of the day’s proceedings, and that was Tomer Tarragona of University of Birmingham.

Crowds were at an all-time high this weekend, with students running back and fore, across the course to support their team mates. Men’s long race winner Tarragona gave his opinion on the effects of the crowds to Athletics Weekly.

He said: “It’s by far the loudest race you will ever run. This also might be the loudest BUCS I’ve ever done, and this is my fourth now!”

Now that most have finished their cross-country seasons some will be looking to the indoor track season for their next event.