England Athletics U15/U17/U20 Championship's, Sheffield (Sat. 8th & Sun. 9th Feb.)
Eleven of our juniors and their parents made the long trip up the M1 to Sheffield for the national Indoor championships, writes Mick Bond. This meeting brings together all the top talent in the UK with athletes from Wales and Scotland allowed to guest in the two-day event.
Hans Nmaju (pictured below) was favourite for the under-17 boys 60m hurdle title after his 7.98s clocking at Lee Valley but a scuffed start in the heats leading to a time 0.5 outside his best created some doubt. In the his semi-final things were better clocking 8.13s and then in the final he blew the opposition away with a 7.95s clocking to win and move to 7th on the UK all-time list.
Another athlete looking for medals was Elijah Olaleye in the under-17 400m, but a ferocious fist lap in the final by other athletes left him trailing down the back straight on the second lap, forcing him to run wide on the final bend and squeezing him out of the medals. Despite this his time of 50.73s was only fractionally outside his best.
There was a solid 4th place for Daniel Obike in the undrer-17 high jump where a first time clearance at 1.90m saw him initially leading the field in an event won with 1.93m. In the long jump Jack Jones (U20 - pictured below)) impressed improving his PB twice in succession with jumps of 6.67m and then 6.75m to take 6th place.
Elsewhere there was an excellent PB by Lizzie McKen in the under-15 60 hurdles with a time of 9.66s to move her to 20th in the UK rankings whilst Ekene Ogbonna also PB'd in the under-17 men’s hurdles with a time of 8.43s and along with Hans and Elijah we now have three athletes in the UK top ten for this event.
Kent Cross Country League, Norman Park (Sat. 8th Feb.)
The three month gap between the penultimate league race and this, the last one, writes Clem Dixon, contribute to something of a feeling of anti-climax (a point that has been made to the organisers more than once). The lack of junior races and the Norman Park course, perhaps the least inspiring of those used regularly for Kent fixtures, also don't help, on this occasion neither did the dank weather. There were less than 200 in the senior men's race whereas there would usually be 300 and our turnout was also affected, just 21 starters (of whom 20 finished, Peter St-Amour pulling up with a hamstring issue) whereas we were previously averaging 34.
With such a long gap it is perhaps worth reminding readers of the story so far: excellent 2nd places in both the 4 and 12 to score in the first two fixtures were followed by a disappointing 3rd and 4th at Danson but in both tables we were still sitting 2nd, by 2 points in the 4 and just 1 point in the 12, from Medway & Maidstone in both cases. In the individual table Bobby Babaker was lying 3rd, level on points with Jamie Walsh of Medway, Danny Kendall and Ben Shearer were 2nd and 3rd in the M40 division.
In spite of twisting an ankle half way round Bobby ran well for 5th place, comfortably clear of Jamie Walsh and with neither of the athletes who had been ahead of him in the table turning up he took the League title. Danny (11th) and Ben (17th) both did easily enough to hold on to their medal positions in the masters table. James Macdonald (19th) who, like Ben, had run a 2:33 marathon just six days earlier completed the 4 to score team for 3rd place, just behind Medway but good enough to hang on to 2nd place by a single point, our best ever league position.
Steve Cummins, one of many who has been gradually improving over the course of the season had the honour of closing out the 12 to score team but here we finished 4th and slipped to 3rd, although to be fair to Medway they had great strength in depth to finish 1st beating not only us but Tonbridge and Blackheath too in a very close battle.
Titterstone Clee Fell Race, Shropshire (Sat. 8th Feb.)
It was back to Shropshire for a race weekend beginning with the Titterstone Clee Fell Race on Saturday and the Long Mynd Valley’s race on Sunday, reports James Floyd - pictured.
Titterstone Clee Fell Race is a short, sharp run up and down the third-highest hill in Shropshire, totalling 4.1km and packing 250 metres of elevation. It sounds relatively straightforward.
I was the only Cambridge Harrier to make the race this year. A cold, foggy start, make the hill completely invisible. On the ascent, the ground turned from grass and heather to snow and rocks, with visibility dropping to as little as 25 metres and high winds on the summit.
After taking a safer but longer route up following the pack, I took a direct route down, alone, over difficult terrain and emerged a little to the left of the finish (which I hear is common), meaning a 250 metre sprint to the finish. I finished 17th of 43 runners in 34:38.The challenging conditions made this one my favourite fell races to date.
Long Mynd Valley’s Fell Race, Shropshire (Sun. 9th Feb.)
Two Cambridge Harriers took on the Long Mynd, Hjalti Rognvaldsson on his fell debut and James Floyd on his first time taking on the race, reports James. The fog remained out in force on Sunday.
Unfortunately, James ended DNF after a navigational mistake between C4 and C5 in dense fog, which took him from CP4 to CP9. He continued to C11, but retired due to knee pain and limped 3.5 km back to the start, avoiding the two remaining climbs and descents. There were six DNFs in 2025 compared with two in 2024 and 2023.
Hjalti Rognvaldsson finished in 122 place in 3:25:39 a great result on his first fell race with Cambridge Harriers. "There was much less running in this 'Fell run' than I had expected. I was also promised some gorgeous views, which never materialised. I guess I'll have to do it again next year" said Hjalti upon finishing.
Veterans AC & Eastern Masters Indoor Championships, Lee Valley (Sun. 9th Feb.)
Some of the clubs masters athletes were in record breaking form ahead of the British Masters National Indoor Championships, taking place over the weekend of 22nd/23rd February at Lee Valley.
Natalie Mann improved her own W40 shot record to 8.17m winning her age group. Wole Odele celebrated his 60th birthday towards the end of January and in his first outing over 400m, in his new age group, ran an impressive 59.15s, removing over a second from the M60 club record, which places him 10th on the UK indoor all-time M60 rankings. Martin Leat improved on the M65 3000m record, clocking 11:21.65s.
Club records are subject to ratification. The criteria and how to claim a club record can be viewed on the website.
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