January 2025: Performance round up

From cross country to indoor track and field, English athletes have kicked off 2025 with a flurry of great performances. With England teams in action across Europe and the England Athletics Senior Indoor Combined Events and Para Championships, there has been lots of athletics action throughout January.

Cross Country

Elgoibar Cross Country

With four teams in action in Spain earlier this month for the Elgoibar Cross Country, it was the U20 women’s quartet who impressed. Eleanor Strevens (Eastbourne, Christopher Voice) topped the podium with teammates Zoe Gilbody (Telford AC, Sarah Benson), Isabel Holt (Blackburn, Edmund Finucane) and Isla McGowan (Banbury, Ros Kelling) following close behind in second, third and sixth respectively.

Hannut Cross Cup

At the Hannut Cross Cup in Belgium, it was once again the England junior women’s team who took a clean sweep of the podium with Isobelle Jones finishing first (Wolverhampton & Bilston) closely followed by Eliza Nicholson (Blackheath & Bromley, Tom Craggs) in second, and late replacement Isla McGowan in third. In strong senior men’s and women’s fields, the England athletes raced well with many finishing in the top 20 in each event.

Indoor Track and Field

England Athletics Indoor Senior Combined Event and Para Championships

The England Athletics Indoor Senior Combined Event and Para Championships kicked off the National Championship calendar with an exciting weekend of action. On day one Thea Brown (Joanna Harding, Sale) successfully defended her title with a dominant PB of 4045 points in the women’s U20 pentathlon. Madeline Down (Mike Bennett, Halesowen, T38) clocked the fastest time in the women’s ambulant 60m heats of 8.22, which was a new PB.

Having taken the lead during the final event of the senior men’s heptathlon on the first day, Lewis Church (Tonbridge, David Hull) held a slim lead from Sammy Ball (Rafer Joseph, Reading) heading into day two. Having lost this lead after the 60m hurdles, Church finished the competition strong with a PB in the 1000m to claim the gold. The U20 men’s heptathlon came down to very fine margins as Sam Wright (Simon Hemmings, Chelmsford) claimed the top spot just 24 points ahead of Luke Pichler (Daniel Njai-Rowney, Blyth).

Reykjavik International Games

A small but mighty team of eight talent pathway athletes travelled to Iceland to represent England at the 2025 Reykjavik International Games. There were some outstanding performances from the English contingent with five first place positions, and all of the team making podiums in their events.

Växjö Throws International

15 athletes represented England at the Växjö Throws International last weekend. With the rare opportunity for many of these throwers to compete indoors, the whole team stepped up to the occasion and every athlete left with valuable learnings. There were also two British U20 indoor records broken by Harriet Court (Paddock Wood, Mike McNeill) in the javelin and Jacob Foord (Taunton, Brett Morse) in the discus.

The action continues in February with the second of our England Athletics Indoor Championships in Sheffield on 8-9 February.

There are also England teams competing at the Armagh International Road Races, Swedish National Combined Event Championships, Home Countries International Cross Country.