The first Maverick event of the year was staged in the New Forest and with a ‘Long‘ route of 23km, a ‘Middle‘ route of 15km and a ‘Short‘ route of 6km, there was something for everyone.

As is often the case with the nearby Maverick events, there were several Bournemouth AC members participating. Will Newbery and Sian McIlwaine were featuring in the ‘Long‘ race and Oscar Newbery was in the ‘Middle‘ race. Leon Atkins and Finley Hurst Atkins were in the ‘Short‘ race along with Jacob Taylor and Ellie Taylor.

The 15km distance was the furthest Oscar Newbery had ever raced, eclipsing the 12km he did at the Maverick New Forest back in 2022. He tends to specialise in triathlons and duathlons, along with cross country and track but they all tend to consist of shorter distance running. Gaining a late entry to Maverick race, he decided to give it a go and see what he could produce.

Hitting some brilliant form of late, Oscar had registered a new parkrun PB of 15:40 just before Christmas and then followed it up with a similar time on Christmas Day proving that he’s liable to be able to consistently deliver that sort of output.

Last year Oscar won the Dorset Schools’ Cross Country Championships, for the second consecutive year. He also finished 8th in the South West Inter County Championships and came 4th in the Hampshire League cross country fixture at Prospect Park. On top of that he managed a 97th place finish in the English Schools’ Cross Country Championships.

As soon as the ‘Middle‘ distance race at the Maverick New Forest started, Oscar took the bull by the hands and assumed control. He looked round and no one seemed keen to go with him so he pressed on on his own. Going through the first mile in 5:35, it was no wonder that no one else in the race could keep up.

He then managed a 6:01 for his second mile, even though there was a bit of an incline at the start of it. He then went through the third mile in 6:13 before encountering another incline on the fourth mile. That put him down to 6:37 but he then continued with a 6:06 for his fifth mile and a 6:03 for his sixth.

Regularly training in the New Forest, Oscar knows the area well. More often than not, he cycles or runs through there on his training runs. He must have felt very at home racing along the trails at breakneck speed. There were a couple of hills he had to face in the next two miles but got past those with no issue, posting a 6:20 and then a 6:27. He then went on to finish strongly with a 6:09 for his final mile split before racing into the finish.

Completing the 9.23 miles in 56 minutes 48 seconds, he’d gone round at an average pace of 6:09. That was a mightily impressive effort given that it was a trail route that was muddy in places and undulating.

Over two minutes passed before Ellie Monks arrived to take 2nd place in 58:54. She runs for Southampton and is well capable of beating most men, as she had at Brockenhurst parkrun the weekend before the Maverick New Forest. They were the only two athletes to get round in under an hour.

 

Coming into it off the back of a 29th place finish in the Under 15 Boys race at the South West Inter Counties Cross Country Championships, Jacob Taylor picked up the runner up spot in the ‘Short‘ distance race. Completing the 6km distance in 24:12, he was 21 seconds behind Finn O’Mahoney who won it in 23:51.

Finley Hurst Atkins wasn’t far behind either taking 3rd place in 24:33. His potential is really coming to the fore now and he already had several impressive results on his resumé including winning the Junior 2k at the Run Bournemouth event for two consecutive years.

He also finished 2nd, 3rd and 4th in the Wessex Cross Country League races last year and was 5th in the Dorset Schools’ Cross Country Championships and 7th in the Hampshire League fixture at Kings Park.

Finley’s dad Leon tried to keep up with him in the ‘Short’ distance race but to no avail. He still managed to record a top ten place though, completing the course in 26:41. That put his average pace for the 3.74 miles at 7:09.

After finishing 7th in the Under 13 Girls race at the South West Inter Counties Cross Country, Ellie Taylor was in top form and she got first female and 5th overall in the ‘Short’ race. Her time was 25:01.

In the ‘Long‘ distance race, Will Newbery completed the 23km distance in 1 hour 37 minutes and 36 seconds which put him in 20th place overall. That was an average pace of around 7 minutes per mile for the 14 miles covered.

Primarily a triathlete, Will competed in the Ironman 70.3 Marbella event at the end of October so that was his main Autumn target. He also ran well at the Round the Lakes 10k to record a time of 36:18.

Sian McIlwaine got through the ‘Long’ course in 2 hours 3 minutes and 27 seconds which made her 35th female out of the 146 women that took part. That was a decent run from her given that the terrain was quite tough in places and the route incorporated over 600ft of elevation.

The ‘Long’ race was won by Rob Hall in a time of 1:24:32, with Sam Burton taking 2nd place in 1:30:31 putting him seven seconds ahead of Sam Banner who took 3rd place. Emily Hollis was 1st female in 1:36:43, with Lucy Morrison 2nd in 1:37:17.

It was great to see so many Bournemouth AC members performing well in the first Maverick event of the year. There will be lots more of that to come in the subsequent ones no doubt.

Many of the BAC stars achieved high placings but the 2025 Maverick New Forest will be remembered for Oscar Newbery’s tremendous victory. Hopefully that will be a sign of things to come from him as he ventures further into longer distance races and with the ability he possesses, he has an exciting journey ahead of him.