NSW Cross Country Championships – Favourites Ed Goddard and Holly Campbell dominate

21 June 2026

NSW Cross Country Championships – Favourites Ed Goddard and Holly Campbell dominate

In glorious winter conditions Ed Goddard won his fifth NSW open State Cross country title, while in the women’s Holly Campbell overcame a strong early challenge from Kate Spencer to win her fourth NSW State winter championship of her career.

128th OPEN MEN 10KM CHAMPIONSHIP

From the gun the pace was on with five athletes quickly putting a gap into the field. The five, Ed Goddard (UTN), Benjamin Ngandu (KEJ), Brit Jack Millar (RCR), Logan Campbell (UNSW), and ACT teenager Brayden Noonan, passed the first short 2km lap in about 6:05.

“If you give too many people a sniff, it changes the dynamic a little bit,” recalled Goddard of the fast start.

The race really took shape on the second 4km lap, with Goddard moving 20 second clear of Millar and Ngandu running together while Noonan was five second back. Campbell had slipped back to the larger pack.

“The first two Ks on this course are not too slow, so I just applied the pressure, then once you're rolling, it's easier to open up a gap,” Goddard said.

On the last 4km lap, Goddard just extended his lead to 26 seconds to finish in a quick time of 31:45. Ngandu ran on for second in 32:12, while ACT U20 World XC representative Brayden Noonan moved into third across the line (32:15), while the State bronze medal went to Run Crew’s Jack Miller clocking 32:22.

“I was pretty happy,” Millar said.

“The course was tough. I tried to hang on the back of Ed and Ben who went out quite hard and thought I'll just try and stay close to them. In hindsight, maybe I should have backed off a bit more and saved more for the second half. But I like the hills. I was going well on the hills and then just in the last lap, I found it pretty difficult up the back there. I was just trying to hang on and keep the guys behind me. The young guy from ACT came flying past in the last section; he's a decent athlete, and obviously Ben has good pedigree.”

Goddard’s fifth win makes him the second most successful athlete in the 128-year history of the race. Only one athlete, Jeff MacKenzie (Western Suburbs) back in the 1920, (100-years ago), have won more titles – six. Goddard also moved clear of three NSW greats who had also won four titles: Olympians Al Lawrence and John Farrington and Paul Arthur who raced shortly after Goddard, competing in the masters 8km. It was also Goddard’s ninth NSW Winter title of his career.

Goddard’s time of 31:45 was also very quick. It is faster than his previous four winning times. Since the races moved from 12k to 10km in 2016, there have only been two faster times in the NSW Championships, those being in the 2018 race when Jordan Gusman won in 31:19 from Goddard with 31:42. 

We understand how challenging the hilly course is, but how did English athlete Jack Millar, compare it to back home?

“We probably get some courses that have a similar number of hills to this. Here is probably on the hillier end of our UK courses. The main difference is, this is like a cricket outfield, whereas in the UK, we'd be running on the bits that aren't cut and are flattened down. It's not always muddy but uh it can be very muddy. I've got my six millimetre track spikes in today, in the UK often we'd have 15s.”

Since arriving in Australia this year, Millar has joined Run Crew.

“It's nice to be part of a team. A bunch of us stayed over at Hyams Beach last night.”

71st OPEN WOMEN 10KM CHAMPIONSHIP

In total contrast, in the men’s race after the first 2km just four seconds separate the lead pack of 15 women. The leading contenders Holly Campbell (RBH), Kate Spencer (UTN) and Kiwi Martina Conner (RBH) were all prominent. Unfortunately, Irish athlete Nichola Sheridan didn’t start. 

Holly Campbell, expected to be one of the athletes to dominate the race, explained the start of the event.

“I had only run once here previously, back in about 2019. I didn’t have a lot of memories about the course and as everybody speaks about how scary the hills at the back are, I went out conservatively on the first short lap. I was even surprised how slow it was,” Campbell recalled.

On the second lap, a 4km distance, the pace increased, quickly splintering the field. Such was the extent of the change, at the end of the lap (6km point in the race) there was now 2:37 minutes between first and 15th. Up front, Holly Campbell and Kate Spencer, had broken away, ahead of a move from Campbell.

“I wanted to use the first 4km loop to see how I would go and ended up getting a gap on Kate on the first sharp downhill and then I just worked into the second lap and I think I negative split that lap which was very good. I was feeling strong the whole way,” Campbell said.

After clocking a conservative 7:51 for the first 2km with only one smaller hill, she then ran two 4km splits of 14:37 and 14:09, for an impressive negative split of 18 seconds. Her final time was 36:37, which better five of the last eight winning times since the next distance of 10km was adopted. But it was also outside twin sister Paige’s winning time in 2022.

“I thought the race was solid and I was really happy to get the win. That was my first long course State cross country title. I really enjoyed the run, and the course is really lovely. We are so lucky to have somewhere so fantastic to do cross country in NSW.”

It was Campbell’s fourth NSW winter State title, following two short course wins and the 10km Road Championship (Sydney 10). 

Next up for Campbell is the Australian Cross Country championships in Ballarat. She is aiming for a medal, but will certainly be one of the leading prospects.

Full results

https://results.skywalkercreative.com.au/results.aspx?CId=20034&RId=6079

David Tarbotton for Athletics NSW

Image Ed Goddard (image courtesy of David Tarbotton)

INDIVIDUAL RESULTS

1 Ed Goddard (UTN) 31:45

2 Benjamin Ngandu (KEJ) 32:12

(Visitor) Brayden Noonan (ACT) 32:15

3 Jack Millar (RCR) 32:22

4 Isaac Shaw (BAN) 32:34

5 Lachlan Townsend (SYU) 32:46

6 Drew Fryer (RBH) 33:00

7 Ethan McKenzie (UTN) 33:17

8 Kurt Fryer (RBH) 33:23

9 Harm Schaap (BAN) 33:34

10 Tipo Packman (RCR) 33:37

TEAMS: BAN, RBH, RCR

WOMEN INDIVIDUAL RESULTS

1 Holly Campbell (RBH) 36:37

2 Kate Spencer (UTN) 37:18

3 Emily Ryan (SYU) 38:48

4 Katie St Lawrence (RCR) 38:54

5 Olivia Sivills (AWL) 39:19

6 Martina Conner (RBH) 39:38

7 Sophie Chudley (RCR) 39:51

8 Caitlyn Tan (UNSW) 40:03

9 Emma Collyer (DEL) 40:32

10 Ruby McPhillips (BAN) 41:07

TEAMS: SYU