UK Indoor Championships, Birmingham (Sat. 22nd & Sun. 23rd Feb.)
Whilst many of our club athletes were getting muddy at Parliament Hill, two of our leading women athletes, Holly Dixon and Hannah Hopper, were competing in the dry at the UK Indoor Championships, in Birmingham.
Hannah Hopper, a silver medallist in 2022, won the women’s 3000m race walk title for the first time, with a time of 14:21.97s, just five seconds shy of her PB set in January in Sheffield.
Holly Dixon started her campaign on Saturday evening in the heats of the 1500m. Seeded in heat one, she secured her place in the final with a second place finish in 4:17.10s. The final took place on Sunday afternoon, where she placed 6th in 4:18.58s.
ECCA Saucony English National Championships, Parliament Hill (Sat. 22nd Feb.)
Last year’s Nationals took place in September at a balmy and dry Weston Park. With light elevations and firm footing, the rescheduled 2024 date (cancelled from February) offered different conditions to the usual Nationals fair. Normality resumed however for the 2025 edition at Parliament Hill, where rain and the progress of earlier races had softened the course up nicely for the last race of the day, the senior men writes Peter St-Amour.
Sixteen Cambridge Harriers took the start, immediately into the iconic climb to the narrowing gap at the crest of the hill where those not at the front were briefly reduced to walking pace, a moment of respite before doing battle with the hallowed mud for the remainder of the 12k distance.
For connoisseurs of dirt, Parliament Hill serves up a tasting menu from seemingly magnetic mud to slippery slop. With 1,781 runners on the course it was well churned. Danny Kendall was our first finisher in 147th overall, followed by Kyle Hurst (276th) and James Macdonald (313th). Peter Reynolds (518th), David Worden (554th) and Geoffrey Smith (671st) completed our top six.
In the team classification, we were in the top third at 35th out of 112 clubs with enough runners to field a team, and two places ahead of Blackheath & Bromley.
The runner in front of me as I crossed the line did the full Brownlee of jelly legs and wayward torso. Plenty of recovery time for all though as the Nationals won’t return to the venue until 2028, and ample opportunity to source a new set of extra long spikes.
There were a number of notable performances from the younger age groups, reports Mark Newell. Lizzie Sanders made the top twenty-five percent in the under-13 girls race, finishing 64th out of 275. A similar performance came from Daniel Whitehouse in the under-15 boys, finishing inside the top 100 (87th of 315).
Celia Yeatman (U15) finished just outside the top 100 in 105th place from 306. Violet and Isla Turner had their debuts for the club coming home in 190th and 273rd place respectively.
In the under-17 men's race, Olly Buck was inside the top 30 until he took a couple of tumbles due to the muddy conditions. Despite this, he still came a respectable 59th, just holding off Aniket Iyengar, who was 4 seconds behind in 61st. The under-17 men had the best team performance of the day, placing 10th from 27 teams.
In her first year in the under 20 age group, Amelia Lawrence ran a strong race to place 46th of 120. In total, we had twenty four young athletes present on the day. Despite the challenging conditions underfoot they all put in great performances and most seemed to enjoy the occasion.
British Masters Indoor Championships, Lee Valley (Sat. 22nd & Sun. 23rd Feb.)
The third national championship of the weekend was the British Masters Indoor at Lee Valley. Club athletes came away with three medals. It was M60 400m gold for Wole Odele, reducing his own club record (subject to ratification) with a clocking of 58.74s. Silver for Chris Loudon in the M35 800m with a SB 1:59.63s and a bronze for Natalie Mann in the W40 shot, with a best throw of 7.79m.
Tunbridge Wells Half Marathon (Sun. 23rd Feb.)
Described as one of the best races in Kent, the Tunbridge Wells Half Marathon certainly does not disappoint with a scenic and challenging route.
Two harriers, Christian Poulton (66th, 1:26:27 & 1st MV55) and Russell Buchanan (254th, 1:38:53) completed the race.
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