Australian Cross Country Championships: NSW Preview

17 August 2026

Australian Cross Country Championships: NSW Preview

The Australian Cross Country Championships this Saturday, return to Ballarat in country Victoria for the second consecutive year. The 84th staging of the event on Saturday 22nd August, will conduct events from under-11s to seniors plus Masters. Titles are some of the most difficult to win as athletes from 800m to 10,000m vie for the title.

NSW will have 387 athletes competing amongst the 1659 athletes from across Australia and New Zealand at the championships.

Here is a detailed look at many of the leading NSW athletes competing and who their main competitors are:

WOMEN OPEN 10KM

Randwick Botany’s Holly Campbell has compiled a solid 12 months of results. It started in late 2025 with a 33:02 third place at the Burnie 10 road race. In January 2026 she was an excellent 44th at the World Cross Country in America. From May to August she has had four consecutive wins over all surfaces. In May she won the Oceania 5000m in Darwin, in June she dominated the NSW XC Championships in Nowra, then in July and August she has had excellent back-to-back wins on the road in the Sydney Harbour 10km and City to Surf 14km.

Campbell has previously won bronze medals in the 2023 and 2024 Australian XC.

An inform Amy Bunnage (VIC) would probably start joint favourite with Campbell, but she has not raced for nine months. In November 2025 the Stanford student placed 30th at the NCAA XC (she was 4th at the November 2024 NCAA XC). On the track, she did not compete outdoors in 2025 or 2026, with her last track race being Indoors in early 2025.

The Victorian State 10km podium of Georgia Hansen, Natalie Rule and Katherine Dowie, will definitely be strong competition for Campbell and Bunnage. Hansen won the title in 2022 and was third last year. This year Rule won the Gold Coast Marathon 10km and was second in the Lakeside 10.

Tasmanian Ruby Smee, who was second in the 2024 Australian XC race on home soil in Launceston, and 4th last year, will definitely be a contended. She is on the improve and in 2026 was an impressive 3rd in the Launceston 10 in May.

Also competing for NSW will be Kate Spencer, and if she is okay after her fall at the recent City to Surf, she will also be in the medal mix. She was third in the 2015 and 2016 Australian cross, and now a decade on has in 2026 been in the best form of her career. Jaylah Hancock-Cameron, who was 8th last year is back for NSW. Despite a summer where she made impressive progress in the 800m and 1500m, she still has the range to match the 10k athletes.

A dark horse is South Australian champion Kate Hollard-Smith. Others worth a mention are Queensland champion Brielle Erbacher and Victorian Olympian Amy Cashin.

MEN OPEN 10KM

On home soil, Victorian duo Ed Marks and Haftu Strintzos will start as favourites for the 84thAustralian XC, but NSW’s Luke Hince has the credentials to be the third wheel here.

Hince has primarily run on the roads for the last 12 months with four 10km races around 29 minutes. Most recently he was second in the 14km City to Surf race won by 2-time Australian XC champion Andy Buchanan. They clocked times of 40:27 Buchanan, 41:05 Hince, with 41:50 for Ed Goddard in third.

Second and third at the NSW 10km XC Championships, Kembla Joggers Benjamin Ngandu and Run Crew’s Jack Millar will be key to helping NSW in the teams title.

Outside of the five athletes mentioned above, it is a terrific line-up of Australian distance running talent, including:

-Olympians Matthew Clarke and Ben Buckingham

-3-time Australian 5000m champion Matthew Ramsden

-Victoria 10km XC champion Logan Janetzki

-2025 National XC bronze medallist Matthew Buckell

-3:38 1500m athlete from Ethiopia Yohanes Asmare

-Gold Coast Marathon 10km champion Liam Cashin

MEN U20 8KM

This is set to be one of the races of the day with four of the six Australian representatives at the January 2026 World XC on the start line with field of 84 athletes. The group is led by NSW’s Harrison Boyn who was the first Australian across the line in Tallahassee in 23rd place. The other World Cross athletes competing are Campbell Brooks (VIC), Lachlan Moore (QLD) and Brayden Noonan (ACT).

Gosford’s Harrison McClusky will be another in the chase for a podium. Fifth last year in the under-18 race, he has had a great 2026 season with second in the NSW U20 XC. NSW will have a strong team with other members including Joel Harlor, Matthew Shaw, Rohan Nairn and Luke Syme.

Another athlete who will be a genuine title threat, and also just off the international stage, is Victorian U20 7km XC champ Lucas Chis, who ran a breakthrough 5000m in Eugene at the World U20s. The Australian U20 5000m champion ran a PB of 13:51 in Eugene when placing 11th. Second, third and fourth at the Victorian State Cross Country, Conor Sullivan, Kalil Galata Wako and Oliver Peake, respectively, will no doubt be in the mix for a podium finish, and along with Chis and Brooks, red hot favourites a Victorian win in the team title. Kiwi World XC representative Corban Holmes rounds out the threats for NSW athletes.

WOMEN U20 6KM

NSW duo Claudia Meaker and State XC champion Olivia O’Kelly, will lead our hopes for the women’s under-20 title. Meaker, who did not start in the NSW State XC, but wore the green and gold at the 2023 World XC, has been getting better with ever race. O’Kelly, who last summer chased World U20 Championships selection, was 6th in the National 5000m in April. A week later she won the Australian University Games title. At the State XC she won by 16 seconds.

They face the clear favourite, Queenslander Isabelle Valinoti. The defending champion, who also placed a brilliant 19th at the World XC in January, is also a talented triathlete. Last year she won this title by 50 seconds and this year the Queensland under-20 title by 91 seconds. In her chase for World Junior selection last summer, she was 5th in both the 3000m and 5000m trials. Her Queensland teammate Milla Roberts, will be on a high from her outstanding performance at the World U20 Championships. Roberts, who clocked a very quick 3000m time of 9:09 last summer and won the Australian U20 1500m title, made the final of the metric mile in Eugene. In the World U20 1500m final, she unfortunately fell trying to avoid a fallen athlete. The 6km distance in Ballarat will definitely not be too far for her to be competitive.

The top-4 from the Victorian State XC race will for a strong team. The standard out is the winner Leanne Ellis, who last year was beaten by just three seconds in the under-18 race, settling for the silver medal. The other Victorians to watch are Ally Brooks, Amy Boote and Hayley Whitsed. Kiwi Denika Jean Cooney, who was 55th at the World XC in January, will be a threat.

MEN & WOMEN PARA-ATHLETICS OPEN

In the open Para-Athletics events eight athletes will start in the women’s race, while the men’s has 10.

Second placegetter in the men’s last year, Bathurst’s Aaron Houston has not entered leaving the NSW charge to Emerald Beach’s Kyle McIntosh. In 2025 McIntosh just missed the podium, placing 4th. He finished one place ahead of Nepean’s Jack Conroy who will be on the start line again in 2026.

They will race a couple of Para-Athletics greats, Paralympians Michael Roeger (SA) and Reece Langdon (ACT).

In the women’s, Rio Paralympic sprinter, Tamsin Colley, will be joined by NSW teammates Emily O’Mahoney and Jessica Filocamo. In the 2025 race O’Mahoney and Filocamo placed 6th and 7th respectively. They will compete against defending champion and 2025 World Para-Athletics bronze medallist Annabelle Colman (VIC).

In the under-20 women’s race, Sara Bergen will represent NSW. A training partner of Kyle McIntosh, they both are coached by Andrew Rollings and train along side World U20 Championships 800m silver medallist Daniel Williams. Sara comes from Nana Glen, a small village located 25 km north-west of Coffs Harbour.

VARIOUS OTHER RACES

In the under-16 boys, it will be a rematch between the gold and silver medallists last year when Westfields athlete Phillip Botonis races Victorian Oscar Woodhouse the 2025 winner.

Incredibly last year in the boys under-14s, NSW took the top-6 places. Five of those six return this year, only missing 5th place Mack Oxley. Last year Run Crew’s Nathaniel Barrett won from Sutherland’s Matthew Faulkner, with Randwick Botany’s Isaac Robinson third. Fourth was Hills District Carter Bergan and sixth Lachlan Kidd.

This year, Faulkner has won the two major races, the NSW Athletics XC in Nowra and the NSW Schools at Horsley Park. A new threat this winter, has been Maitland’s Zachary West. Last year in Ballarat he placed 62nd, but this year he was 2nd in Nowra, and then 3rd at the NSW Schools XC. Another going particularly well in 2026 is Girraween’s Lachlan Kidd who was 2nd at the NSW Schools race.

In the under-13 boys, Illawong’s Archie Herb will be out to defend his 2025 title won by 22 seconds. Manly Warringah’s Kyah Ryals (U15 girls) is likely going better in 2026, than her 6th place last year. Some other NSW athletes to watch are Viktorie Trebulova (Manly, U14 girls), Ronia Warszawska (Sutherland, U15 girls), Amelia Mandalinic (Manly, U15 girls) and Keedon Harrison (Bankstown, U18 boys).

The Masters race has a terrific lineup of NSW athletes. Leading NSW coaches comprise many of those NSW competing, include Dani Andres, Brett Mathison, Darren Purcell, Caroline Bailey and Warren Williams. Another competing is NSW winter running legend Paul Arthur, who is also making a great impact in coaching on the Central Coast. As an athletes he placed twice at the National XC championships (1991 & 1995) and represented Australia at the 1992 World Cross Country Championships. Also running for NSW is Scott Robinson, a handy athlete in his own career, he is the son of Alan Robinson who was 3rd in the 1973 Australian XC title and the father of Isaac Robinson, a leading junior athlete who was 3rd last year in the U14 race.

The NSW Masters athletes race one of Australia’s great distance runners, Shaun Creighton. Raised in Armidale NSW, Creighton lived in Victoria and now Canberra. The 2-time Olympian, competed for Australia at nine World Cross Country Championships and last year had his 32-year-old Australian steeplechase record broken.

David Tarbotton for NSW Athletics

Image: Luke Hince (image courtesy of David Tarbotton)