News
Welsh Senior Outdoor Track & Field Championships - Day Two Round-Up
28/06/2026 00:00, In Blog /
Day Two of the 108th Welsh Senior, Under-18 and Para Outdoor Track and Field Championships boasted dramatic photo finishes, championship best performance and Team Wales Commonwealth Games athletes galore on a glorious day in Cardiff.
Some of the best young athletes from around the United Kingdom also secured their places on the plane to Italy for the European Athletics Under-18 Championships as the event also featured the Great Britain team selection trials.
The first of the Welsh 2026 Glasgow Commonwealth Games athletes to compete on Sunday was the youngest member of the athletics team – Ellie Mai Bowen (Cardiff Archers).
The 17-year-old F56 athlete threw a best of 6.20m to win the Under-18 women’s seated shot before going on to win the seated discus competition with a best of 18.43m which she produced in the first round.
Speaking after her performances Bowen said: “I think it went pretty well, I’m just looking forward to Glasgow now.
“I’m quite nervous about it, but also really excited and really honoured to be selected for the team. It’s all about training hard between now and the games.”
While Bowen is heading to her first games, Adele Nicoll (Birchfield Harriers) has a wealth of global experience having previously competed at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games in the shot put and appeared at two Winter Olympics in the bobsleigh.
On Sunday, Nicoll, who missed last weekend’s UK Champs due to an elbow injury returned to action by taking gold in the senior women’s shot put with a best of 16.96m. Silver went to Cerys Aboagye (Croydon Harriers) with 13.56m, while Rebekah Pratt (Swansea Harriers) claimed bronze with 10.69m.
Nicoll also received the new Venissa Head Trophy in honour of the legendary Welsh shot and discus thrower who won 25 Welsh titles and finished sixth at the 1984 Olympics in the shot put.
Commenting on receiving the award, Nicoll said:
“To be the first person to have it and be the first person to sign the book that goes with it, it's a reflective moment where I can think, ‘wow, I started doing this when I was like nine years old’.
“And now my name’s going down in this book for other nine year olds to see and say ‘oh, Adele Nicoll, she was that good shot putter’. I used to think, ‘oh, that's Vanessa Head, she's the good shot putter. So it's a big honour, and I feel really privileged to have been considered for the award.”
On her performance, Nicoll added: “There's some real positives to take from it. I've got a new throwing coach, literally just started within the last six weeks. We have taken things apart, and I'm really happy with the consistency that's coming through now. I think I just need to work on how I go from like a six out of 10 intensity to competitive intensity, because when I'm super relaxed, it's going well.
“I'm just trying to figure out the timing of things, you know, coming back from seven months of no throwing, it's the timing that's the most important thing. Physically, I'm in shape, because I just got back from an Olympic Games, but it's the timing of throwing that is the most important thing.”
Two more Team Wales throwers were in action in the para male ambulant discus legendary F42 thrower Aled Davies (Cardiff Athletics), who has a clutch of global medals and titles to his name and F44 man Harrison Walsh (Swansea Harriers) who also medalled at the last games in Birmingham.
Walsh threw a best of 56.08m while Davies recorded 45.70m. A third Welsh thrower, F38 athlete Charlie Goodwin (Cardiff Athletics) measured a best of 23.60m.
The men’s senior discus competition was emphatically won by Welsh Athletics Transition Programme thrower Mike Jenkins (Swansea Harriers) with a best of 53.99m. Morgan Keen Williams (Newport Harriers) won silver with 37.58m and Alfie Williams (Thames Valley Harriers) bronze with 36.11m.
Another Team Wales competitor taking part on Sunday was Tom Walley (Wrexham AC) who won an exciting pole vault competition where he had to produce a couple of clutch jumps to reach a best height of 5.10m.
Walley said of his performance:
“There was a lot going on in that comp. I think I made some wrong decisions with poles and things, but you know, you learn from that and move on. And I think now is the time to make those mistakes ahead of Glasgow, so I can correct them.”
Asked what representing Wales at the Commonwealth means to him, Walley simply said:
“Everything! It’s the proudest sporting achievement of my life.”
There was a dramatic finish to the Under-18 women’s 200m final where Aliyah Afolabi (Cardiff Archers) narrowly missed out on a top two finish which would have given her an automatic place at the European Athletics Under-18 Championships in Italy.
Afolabi was second going into the final stages in second placed after Emma Clark (Whitemoss AAC) had fallen, but the hugely promising young Welsh sprinter couldn’t quite hang on as she finished third in 23.90. However, the young sprinter had the consolation of picking up the Welsh title.
There was also a third place finish for NDP sprinter Finnley Roynon (Cwmbran Harriers) in the Under-18 200m final where Ethan Heggarty (Bingley Harriers and AC) smashed Tim Benjamin’s 29-year-old championship best time as he clocked a remarkable 20.51.
Roynon ran a big personal best of 21.12, which would have brought him Euro qualification had he secured a top two place. Second in the Welsh championship race was Lucca Tardivel (West Cheshire Athletic Club) in 21.61 with Joshua Thomas (Cardiff Archers) third in 21.88.
In the senior men’s 200m, Alex Azu (Cardiff Athletics) was in imperious form as he stormed to victory in 21.27. Cameron Jones (Menai Track and Field) was the second Welsh athlete to finish in 22.22 with Lewis Ross (Newport Harriers) third in 22.32.
The women’s senior 200m Welsh title was won by Isabella Wigley (Cardiff Archers) in 24.34 ahead of Eli Jones (Menai Track and Field) in 24.54 and Olivia Gillespie (Newport Harriers) in 25.06.
The senior men’s 110m hurdles final was won by Welsh Athletics Transition Programme athlete Tom Wilcock (Northampton AC) who surged to victory in 13.83. Evan Cole (Swansea Harries) picked up the Welsh Championship silver in 14.96.
One of the most thrilling races of the day came in the senior men’s 800m where NDP runner Thomas Loynes (Neath Harriers) literally threw himself at the line to claim gold in 1:57.82 and hold off the last gasp charge of Henry Evans (Cardiff Athletics) by just 100th of a second. Samuel Hembry (Bromsgrove and Redditch) who had led the race finished fourth in 1:57.97.
There was another close finish in the senior women’s 400m where Millie Webb (Cardiff Athletics) came through to pip Ffion Mair Roberts (Menai Track and Field on the line by four hundredths of a second to win in 55.64. Eva Tyler (Cardiff Athletics) was the third Welsh athlete in 56.48m.
If the women’s final had been close, the men’s final was far more clear cut as Olympian Joe Brier underlined his international class striding to victory in 46.14. The second Welsh athlete was Jacob Winter (Dudley and Stourbridge Harriers) in 48.15 ahead of Steffan Jones (Swansea Harriers) in 49.62m.
Following her appearance at last weekend’s UK Champs, NDP thrower Amelia Fettis (Newport Harriers) took gold here with a best of 58.06m. Rebekah Pratt was the second Welsh athlete with 39.07m just ahead of Zoe Dakin (Swansea Harriers) 39.06m.
The first track medal of the day went to Guy Thomas (Tonbridge AC) who won the 5,000 men’s racewalk in a season’s best time of 21:56.62.
Just like at last week’s UK Championships where he won a silver medal, Thomas had to spend a period in the sin bin during the later stages of the race, but was far enough ahead to hold off the challenge of young Australian guest walker Sebastian Richards (Southern AC Run Club) who was second in 22:06.57.
Second in the Welsh championships was Fraser Higginson (Bridgend Athletics) in 27:41.83 with the appropriately named Stephen Walker (Wrexham AC) third in 35:33.31.
The women’s senior race was won once again by Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Bethan Davies (Cardiff Athletics).
Last weekend’s UK Championships gold medallist dominated the race from the gun to win in 23:49.71. Megan Chantrell (Cardiff Athletics) won the Under-18 women’s title in a time of 35:15.14.
Another medallist from the UK champs, Hannah Lake (Cardiff Athletics) shared gold on Sunday with Lili Church (Carmarthenshire Harriers), who also contested the final in Birmingham.
Like last weekend, the two athletes jumped the same height, but this time they couldn’t be separated on countback having both cleared 1.75m.
The weekend was peppered with championships best records partly thanks to the event also hosting the European Athletics Under-18 Championships Great Britain Trials.
Amongst them was the Under-18 championship best mark of 61.32m for Scottish athlete Sophie Roberston (Cumberland AAC) who won the open Under-18 women’s hammer, which also earned her the European qualifying standard.
The Welsh Under-18 hammer title was won by NDP thrower Evie Cooper (Swansea Harriers) with 60:52m, which was less than a metre off the qualifying standard. Fellow NDP athlete Amelia Mitchell (Neath Harriers) was second with 59:08m and Ava Smith (Rhondda AAC) third with 48:05m.
There was a Welsh Championship medals clean sweep for Cardiff Archers in the Under-18 women’s 100m hurdles final where NDP multi-eventer Tiana Odugbesan won the overall competition in a championship best distance of 5.91m. Elen Megan Blackmore won silver with 5.31m ahead of Imogen Vecchi with 4.88m.
Having made its debut at the Welsh Senior Championships the previous day, frame running once again took centre stage on Sunday with a 200m race, which saw Welsh 14-year-old Aneurin Clark (Gloucester AC) finish fourth overall and win his age group in 47.07. The previous day, Clark finished sixth overall in the 100m race.
The 200m wheelchair race saw NDP T54 athlete Owain Terrell (Newport Harriers) post a new PB of 32.39, while Under-16 T34 athlete Imogen Ashwell-Rice (Newport Harriers) won her age group with 47.53.
The senior men’s seated shot was won by F34 athlete Jac Sheehan (Aberystwyth AC) with a best of 7.90m with fellow F34 thrower Kieran Jones (Cardiff Athletics) second with 7.71m. Sheehan also won the men’s discus with a best of 23.85 in the first round.