English athlete action at the British champs

It was a busy weekend in Birmingham at the UK Athletics Indoor Championships! Two days of an action-packed schedule saw new British champions crowned, and spots secured on the GB and NI team for the World Indoors in Glasgow later this month. Let’s see how the English athletes got on. 

Day one 

Sprints

The 60m sprinters kickstarted the championships with the women up first. 200m and relay specialist Bianca Williams (Thames Valley, Linford Christie) was the fastest to qualify for the semi-final with a time of 7.37. Pre-meet favourite Amy Hunt (Charnwood, Marco Airale) charged to a new season’s best in the semi of 7.24, making her the fastest qualifier for the final where she held off Williams to take the title. Lincoln’s Mabel Akande (Denise Timmis) was also impressive coming in third at just 17 years old. 

In the men’s 60m the Welshman Jeremiah Azu showed his fine form, taking top spot in the heat, semi, and final winning in a time of 6.60 with Andrew Robertson (Sale Harriers) and Ojie Edoburun (Enfield & Haringey, Stuart McMillan) finishing in second and third with times of 6.68 and 6.71 respectively.  

In the men’s 60m para final, it was Kevin Santos T47 (City of Norwich, Michael Utting) who retained his title from 2023, just pipping Zac Shaw T12 (Cleethorpes, Leon Baptiste) to the title. In the women’s final, it was Welshwoman Olivia Breen T38 who took the title with under-17 Madeline Down (Halesowen, Mike Bennett) coming in second with a new 60m PB of 8.24.   

Pole vault

The women’s pole vault final was definitely one to watch as Molly Caudery (Stuart Caudery, Thames Valley) continued the fantastic trajectory of her season so far to not only take the gold medal, but also the championship record and an indoor world lead! Entering the competition at 4.41m, she was clear first time with the bar moving up to 4.61m, clearing this on the second time of asking. The bar then continued to rise with her clearing 4.85m for a new lifetime best, increasing from the 4.83m set last month.  The men’s pole vault final was closely fought for the medals with Lazarus Benjamin (Sale Harriers) and Thomas Walley (Wrexham) battling it out for silver and bronze. Securing the gold, Owen Heard (Harrow AC, Kate Rooney) then increased the bar by 15cm to 5.41m where he unfortunately took three failures.  

Horizontal jumps

Elsewhere on the infield the men’s triple jumpers were in action. From a field of nine athletes, there were a fantastic three personal bests and one season’s best with Archie Yeo (Kingston Upon Hull, Lukasz Zawila) jumping a new best of 15.55m to take the win. It was an incredible competition in the women’s long jump with all three athletes on the podium finishing within 1cm of each other. Molly Palmer (Thames Valley, Lukasz Zawila), and Cleo Martin-Evans (Daventry AC, Julian Reid) both jumped 6.18m with Cleo taking second on countback. It was heptathlete Jade O’Dowda (Newham & Essex Beagles, John Lane) who took the gold in a new indoor lifetime best of 6.19m.  

Hurdles

It was a day of dominant performances from Cindy Sember (Woodford Green & Essex Ladies, Chris Johnson) as she cruised through to the 60m hurdles final, taking the title in 7.99 from heptathlete Abigail Pawlett (Trafford AC, Ashley Bryant) who is having a sterling season so far. In the men’s 60m hurdles, it was Tade Ojora (Windsor, Slough, Eton & Hounslow) who became the British champion in 7.62.  

Day two 

The second day of action was all about the finals with the men’s high jump, women’s triple jump and shot put kicking things off.  

Jumps

It was Chelmsford AC’s Tom Hewes (Grant Brown) who took the crown in the men’s high jump, clearing the same winning height of 2.18m as William Grimsey (Woodford Green Essex Ladies, Beth Partridge) but having the cleaner score card on countback. Morgan Lake (Windsor, Slough, Eton & Hounslow, Robbie Grabarz) took the title in the women’s competition with 1.85m.

The women’s triple jump saw Lily Hulland (Thames Valley, Lukasz Zawila) improve her silver from last year’s champs to take the victory this year in Birmingham with a jump of 13.06m PB.  Alex Farquharson (Birchfield Harriers, Aston Moore) opened his long jump season in Birmingham and did so in fine style, taking the title with a leap of 7.46m. 

Throws

Over at the shot circle, Amelia Campbell (Thames Valley Harriers, Zane Duquemin) dominated the women’s shot put, taking the win with 17.74m - one metre clear of Serena Vincent’s (City of Portsmouth, Mike Winch) second place throw. It was an 8th British title for Scott Lincoln (City of York, Paul Wilson) in the men’s shot with his first-round throw of 20.08m. 

Endurance

The first finals on the track were the men’s and women’s 3000m walk. The men’s race was closely contested for the first kilometre between Chris Snook (Aldershot, Farnham & District, Andi Drake) and Cameron Corbishley (Medway & Maidstone, Andi Drake). Corbishley, however, picked up too many red cards and was disqualified and Chris Snook took the title in a new lifetime best of 11:45.68. Clubmate Abigail Jennings took the women’s gold medal in a new best of 14:09.22, holding off Gracie Griffiths of Pembrokeshire Harriers. 

Next up was the 3000m, with the strength and depth of the field it was always going to be an exciting race if not a little congested. Starting off steady, it was down to who had the biggest kick in the latter stages of the race with James West (Tonbridge, Helen Clitheroe) finishing on top, and Charles Wheeler (MK Distance Project, James Bennett) and Zak Seddon (Bracknell AC) completing the podium.

It was much of the same story in the women’s 3000m as the leader chopped and changed throughout the race until Scotland’s Laura Muir started her charge with 350m to go. Hannah Nuttall (Charnwood AC, Helen Clitheroe) finished strongly to take the silver medal (9:01.94), as did Kate Axford (Belgrave Harriers) who not only left Birmingham with the bronze but also a new indoor PB of 9:08.03 

In the men’s 1500m it was all still to play for with 50m to go before Welshman Piers Copeland made a last dash for the line to out-dip the Cambridge man, Callum Elson. Having a fantastic season so far, Georgia Bell (Belgrave, Trevor Painter) managed to hold off Revee Walcott-Nolan (Luton) to take the title in 4:09.66.  

Sprints

The female 400m runners were not only fighting for the gold medal, but also trying to book their spots on the relay team for the World Championships. Twin duo Laviai (Enfield and Haringey, Tony Lester) and Lina Nielsen (Shaftesbury Barnet, Tony Lester) executed the race spectacularly as they finished 1-2 respectively in 51.54 and 51.95 PB. Lee Thompson (Sheffield & Dearne, John Henson) was victorious in the men’s race with 46.69. 400m specialist Ama Pipi (Enfield & Haringey, Linford Christie) was testing out her speed and took gold in the 200m whilst Richard Akinyebo (BFT Track Academy, TJ Ossai) won the men’s race. 

Middle distance

The final events of the championships were the 800m. Scotsman Guy Learmonth led the field at the break point, but Jack Higgins (Tonbridge, Mark Hookway) kept on his shoulder timing his kick to perfection to dip and just take first place ahead of Learmonth.

In the women’s race it was another battle of the English verses the Scots, with a fantastic race executed to perfection by Jemma Reekie to take the title and book her spot on the team for the World Championships, with Isabelle Boffey coming home in second (Enfield & Haringey, Luke Gunn).   

Photos by Gary Mitchell (athletics photos available to purchase)