Youth Hill Climb sees emerging talents pushing hard at the top

Probably the toughest and most daunting of the Youth Road Running campaign races, Monday’s Hill Climb saw some close battles between emerging teenage talents.
The race, which started close to Lathbury Sports Complex, saw runners climb Queen’s Lookout, where Queen Elizabeth II once stood overlooking Gibraltar.
A steep incline that has challenged many senior runners, the 2026 Youth Hill Climb saw Alex Gordon lead the way, closely followed by Olivia Roberts Patterson.
The finish order was male, female, male, female, with Alex taking first place, Olivia second, followed by Devon Mumford and Sophie Roberts Patterson in fourth. Twenty-one seconds separated first and fourth, highlighting the competitive nature of races at this level. Notably, the two male youth runners were 15 years of age, with the Roberts Patterson sisters two years younger at just 13.
Seventeen runners aged 8 to 15 finished in under five minutes, with a total of fifty young runners taking up the challenge.
Most notable was the fact that among the seventeen sub-five-minute finishers were three eight-year-olds, two of them female runners, with a nine-year-old among the top twelve.
Ten-year-old Ollie Rudden finished among the top ten and was within thirty seconds of winner Alex Gordon, five years his senior.

HILL CLIMB 2026
AGE GENDER NAME Number Time
8 M RAYANE AIT LACHEN MATTO 294 4.48 1
8 M LUCAS GORDON 014 5.04 2
8 M OLIVER FRANCIS 304 5.06 3
8 M MIKKEL BERING 382 5.53 4
8 M SOLOMON BRENIG 388 6.13 5

8 F ELIZA O'SHAUGHNESSY 392 4.50 1
8 F ANNA GAREZE 255 4.58 2
8 F ELLA O'CONNELL 299 7.51 3

9 F MARIYAH SHERIFF 210 5.50 1
9 F SCARLET GRACE BRIGHT 359 6.30 2
9 F FORTUNE KOMAKECH 192 6.36 3
9 F AMELIA LANE 289 7.10 4

9 M NOAH JEFFRIES MOR 505 4.47 1
9 M NOAH TRINIDAD 457 5.01 2
9 M ETHAN MARTINEZ 396 6.17 3

10 M OLLIE RUDDEN 331 4.22 1
10 M DANIEL TIBOT 414 4.42 2
10 M DAVID BRENIG 397 5.39 3
10 M ALFIE VICTORY 473 6.16 4

10 F LAUREN DAVIS 450 5.48 1
10 F ZARA LALLY 281 7.30 2
10 F APOLLINE MAMOU 337 8.19 3

11 F ELLA ORFILA 267 5.21 1
11 F LAUREN LALLY 074 5.25 2
11 F PERLA BARKER 502 6.09 3
11 F SIENNA MAE HARPER 270 6.20 4

11 M FRANCESCO BAGLIETTO 215 4.47 1
11 M GEORGE FERNANDEZ 499 5.01 2
11 M ALEKSANDER GALIA 211 5.09 3
11 M ELI BRENIG 402 5.15 4
11 M LUCA TRINIDAD 452 5.37 5

12 M JACOB COOK 500 4.19 1
12 M BEN ROBERTS PATTERSON 422 4.40 2
12 M MICHAEL BYRNE 467 5.59 3

12 F ALBA HERNANDEZ 423 5.23 1
12 F MARTHA O'SHAUGHNESSY 442 5.47 2
12 F KAITLYN BRIGHT 360 7.10 3

13 F OLIVA ROBERTS PATTERSON 424 4.01 1
13 F SOPHIE ROBERTS PATTERSON425 4.10 2
13 F ARIANNE PERALES 269 5.38 3

13 M MARKO DIAMANTOPULOUS 435 4.16 1
13 M BEN GORDON 310 4.17 2
13 M CALLUM BROWN 266 5.07 3

14 M JACK BIRELL 501 4.24 1
14 M OLIVER ROBERTS 363 5.15 2
14 M JYLES SHERIFF 444 6.51 3

14 F CYSSI BRAVO 434 4.59 1

15 M ALEX GORDON 311 3.49 1
15 M DEVON MUMFORD 504 4.05 2
15 M JAKE CROME 503 6.09 3