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15/05/2025 00:00, In Blog /

An exciting mix of promise and experience will represent Wales at this weekend’s annual Loughborough International.

One of the most eye-catching selections in the Welsh team is 2021 European Under-23 800m champion Isabelle Boffey.

The Enfield and Haringey athlete will be making her first appearance in a Welsh vest since transferring her allegiance from England.

Boffey, who represented Great Britain at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest over 800m, will be contesting the 400m on Sunday.

The 25-year-old has switched from the red rose thanks to her mum’s roots in Porthcawl and conversations with Welsh Athletics Head of Performance Chris Type and multi-eventer Abi Pawlett, who has also made the move to represent Wales.

Preparing for the meeting, Boffey explained her decision:

I'm half Welsh. My mum was born and raised in Porthcawl.

 

I grew up in in London, so we did English schools, and therefore just naturally competed for England. But I’d been thinking about making the move over for a while. I spoke to Chris about it and it was quite an easy transition.

I also spoke to one of the girls, Abi Pawlett, who had made the transition last year. I spoke to her about it briefly then.

 

It’s taken me a while to actually make the move across. My mum was super happy, it was something that she'd always wanted to see me do.

 

And obviously you’ve also got the Commonwealth Games coming up next year, so that would be a great opportunity to be racing in the Welsh vest. So I thought, yeah, now is the time.

 

I'm super excited and I’ll be so proud to run for Wales at the weekend. Everyone is so lovely and supportive. I obviously know a lot of the athletes already on the team. So yeah, I'm really excited.

Boffey was also impressed by the support Welsh athletes receive from the governing body in helping them achieve their potential.

The performance support is great. Obviously, I've only just made the switch, so it's something that I’m just getting used to says Boffey, who has previously competed for England at the Loughborough International.

 

But from what I've heard from Abi, and obviously Melissa Courtney-Bryant, who's been part of the Welsh set up for a long time now, that support is amazing. So it was a very easy switch for me to make.

Having made her name as an 800m runner, Boffey explained why she will making her Welsh debut over the one lap distance.

We were aware that the season is a lot later this year,” said the Birmingham-based athlete who missed most of last year’s outdoor season due to a grade two hamstring tear.

 

The British national championships isn’t until the first weekend of August, so it just made sense to open with eights a little bit later.

 

I had the whole summer off last year, so it was nice to get a good indoor season done and have a lot of time to do a lot more base training across April, said Boffey, who competed at the European Indoor Championships in March.

 

But I've always loved doing the 400. And I love doing the relays - it's one of the biggest team elements that comes into athletics, which is obviously usually a solo sport.

 

So it's a way of doing something a bit different, and I’m definitely a four/eight runner, not an not an eight/fifteen runner! So yeah, I just thought I'll do a couple of 400s and see how it goes.

Boffey is happy with where her form is having finished third over 400m at the Irish Milers Club meeting in Belfast last weekend.

I know I can run a lot faster than I did in the indoor season, but you know, having had all of last summer off, it is taking a while to get that race fitness back up to speed.

 

I'm super happy with where I'm at now, and I'm excited to race this weekend, and then my first 800 of the season the following weekend in Zagreb.

Looking further ahead, Boffey is excited at what the next couple of years could hold for her in the Great Britain and Wales vests.

Having competed at one World Championships, Boffey, who has an 800m personal best of 1:59.30, is keen to repeat the experience in Tokyo this September.

Setting out her targets, the 2019 double European under-20 championship gold medallist said:

I'd love to get a new PB this season.

 

Last year was a time full of injury for me, so I'd love to be back out there running sub twos and, yeah, maybe get that qualifying time for World Champs.

 

And next year is such a great year. We've got the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and then the European Champs in Birmingham which is my home city. It’s going to be great. The times are tough, but I think I can definitely do it.

Boffey is joined in the women’s team by Pawlett and another relatively recent convert to the Welsh camp, javelin thrower Freya Jones, whose father was born in London to Welsh speaking parents.

Sunday will be the season opener for Jones, who claimed a silver medal at last summer’s UK Athletics Championships in Manchester.

Pawlett has been in outstanding form so far this year having won the 60m hurdles title at the UK Indoor Athletics Championships and more recently the BUCS 100m hurdles title in a championship best time.

The women’s team is captained by double British shot-put champion and Winter Olympic bobsleigh hopeful Adele Nicholl (Birchfield Harriers), who is part of the Welsh Athletics Transition Programme.

There is further experience in the shape of World Para Athletics Championships and Commonwealth Games gold medallist Olivia Breen (City of Portsmouth) who will compete in the para long jump.

Amongst the plethora of emerging talent selected is National Development Programme sprinter Aliyah Afolabi (Cardiff Archers), who is the fastest under-17 woman over 100m and 200m in the UK so far this year.

Afolabi will contest the individual 200m but is also part of a development 4x100 squad alongside fellow NDP sprinters Jessica Mantle (Cardiff Athletics), Menna Grant (Cardiff Archers) and Ava Placide (Cardiff Athletics).

On the men’s side, the Welsh team boasts an equally strong mix of established internationals and rising talent.

The team is captained by T11 para sprinter and Transition Programme athlete James Ledger (Swansea Harriers), who represented Wales at the 2018 Commonwealth Games on Australia’s Gold Coast.

There is also experience in the shape of Great Britain international Sam Gordon (Cardiff Athletics), who lines up in the 100m, while clubmate and training partner Alex Azu takes to the blocks in the 200m.

The men’s team also includes two medallists from this year’s UK Indoor Athletics Championships – Mark Mellor (Cardiff Athletics), who claimed a silver medal in the pole vault and Patrick Swan (Cornwall AC) who also won silver in the shot put.

Amongst a number of other NDP prospects on the men’s team is Jack Organ (Brecon AC) who ran a new 800m PB of 1:49.63 at the recent BUCS Championships – just outside the European Under-20 championships qualifying time.

Wales has also named a strong mixed 4x400, which features Olympian Joe Brier (Swansea Harriers), alongside his sister and Wales’ fastest woman Hannah Brier (Swansea Harriers).

The quartet also features Tess McHugh (Sale Harriers, Manchester) who ran a PB in Northern Ireland last weekend and Harry Bradley (Newport Harriers) who made his debut at the UK Indoor Athletics Championships earlier this year.

The Loughborough International, which is held at the Paula Radcliffe Stadium on the town’s university campus, is recognised as the curtain raiser to the outdoor season.

The Welsh athletes will be competing against teams representing England, Scotland, GB&NI Under-20s, the National Athletics League and Loughborough University.

EVENT DETAILS

Women’s Team:

200m: Aliyah Afolabi (Cardiff Archers, Lisa Waddon)

400m: Isabelle Boffey (Enfield and Haringey, Luke Gunn)

800m: Rachel McClay (Bracknell AC, Laurance Kingsbury)

3000m: Anna Bracegirdle (Salford Harriers, Self Coached)

100m Hurdles: Abi Pawlett (Trafford Athletics Club, Ashely Bryant)

400m Hurdles: Sophie Lisk (Cardiff Archers, Alex Currie & Phil Warwicker)

Steeplechase: Millie Gold (Swansea Harriers, Mark Gold)

Long Jump: Abi Pawlett (Trafford Athletics Club, Ashley Bryant)

Triple Jump: Olivia Schrimshaw (Deeside AAC, Amy Billington)

High Jump: Hannah Lake (Cardiff Athletics, Deirdre Elmhirst)

Pole Vault: Carys Jones (Swansea Harriers, Kate Rooney)

Shot: Adele Nicoll (Birchfield Harriers, Ryan Spencer-Jones) - Team Captain

Discus: Lucy Harris (Swansea Harriers, Gary Herrington)

Javelin: Freya Jones (Harrow AC, Tom Dobbing)

Hammer: Amelia Fettis (Newport Harriers, John Pearson & Adrian Palmer)

Para Long Jump: Olivia Breen (City of Portsmouth AC, Aston Moore)

4 x 100m Development Team: Aliyah Afolabi (Cardiff Archers, Lisa Waddon), Jessica Mantle (Cardiff Athletics, Helen James), Menna Grant (Cardiff Archers, Bethan Grant), Ava Placide (Cardiff Athletics, Helen James)

Men’s Team:

100m: Sam Gordon (Cardiff Athletics, Helen James)

200m: Alex Azu (Cardiff Archers, Helen James)

400m: Harry Bradley (Newport Harriers, Darryn Mcatee)

800m: Jack Organ (Brecon AC, Derek Osbourne)

Mile: Ethan Ackroyd (Liverpool Harriers, Ian Ackroyd)

3000m: James Heneghan (Pontypridd Roadents, James Thie)

400m Hurdles: Jack Houghton (Swansea Harriers, Andrew Griffiths)

Steeplechase: Henry Evans (Cardiff Athletics, Self Coached)

Long Jump: Toks Akanbi-Mortimer (Cardiff Athletics, Mike Guest)

High Jump: Seb Clatworthy (Chelmsford AC, Simon Hemmings)

Pole Vault: Mark Mellor (Cardiff Athletics, Lewis Preece)

Shot: Patrick Swan (Cornwall AC, Ryan Spencer-Jones)

Discus: Michael Jenkins (Swansea Harriers, Ryan Spencer-Jones)

Male Para 100m: James Ledger (Swansea Harriers, Matt Elias) - Team Captain

Male Para 400m: John Bridge (Cardiff Athletics, Darrell Maynard)

Male Para Long Jump: Barney Corrall (Charnwood AC, Aston Moore)

4 x 100m: Sam Gordon (Cardiff Athletics, Helen James), Joseph Berry (Newport Harriers, Eric Oram), Alex Azu (Cardiff Archers, Helen James), Aron Tugwell (Cardiff Archers, Lisa Waddon)

Mixed 4 x 400m

Tess McHugh (Sale Harriers, Steve Ball)

Hannah Brier (Swansea Harriers, Rhys Williams)

Joseph Brier (Swansea Harriers, Nick Dakin)

Harry Bradley (Newport Harriers, Darryn Mcatee)

Team Staff

Team lead: Steve Mitchell

Head of Performance: Chris Type

Sprints lead: Rhys Williams

Relays: Lisa Waddon, Dave Norton

Throws lead: Adrian Palmer

Para lead: Richie Powell

Endurance lead: John Messum

Jumps lead: Ashley Bryant

Sport Psychologist: Louise Jones

Physiotherapy: Jonny Harper

Points of Contact

Steve Mitchell - National Talent Development Coordinator (Endurance) 

Ieuan Jones - Performance Coordinator