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Welsh Senior, Under-17 and Para Track and Field Championships - Preview
26/06/2025 00:00, In Blog /
The 107th Welsh Senior, Under-17 and Para Track and Field Championships has attracted a high quality entry of almost 800 athletes to Cardiff’s International Sports Campus this weekend.
With the event incorporating the Great Britain team trials for this summer’s European Under-23 championships in Norway, the entry lists feature some of the UK’s top young athletes.
Among the Welsh entries who will be hunting down national titles and a place on the plane to Bergen is middle distance star Justin Davies.
Photo of Justin Davies claiming gold at the UK Indoor Championships 2025. Photo credit Owen Morgan.
The Team Bath athlete will be involved in one of the many mega match-ups of the weekend - the men’s senior/under-23 800m.
Davies, who won the British indoor 800m title in spectacular fashion earlier this year, already has the qualifying standard. He is also the fastest in the field with a best of 1:44.35.
A win will see him retain his Welsh title and seal an automatic place on the GB team, with up to two more spots available at the selectors’ discretion in each under-23 events.
However, Davies will face stiff opposition for selection from non-Welsh entries Henry Jonas (City of Norwich) and David Race (Gateshead Harriers). Both also have the qualification standard.
Other eye-catching track entries include World Indoor 60m champion Jeremiah Azu, lining up alongside his brother and Cardiff Athletics clubmate Alex Azu. They feature in a bumper men’s senior/under-23 200m field on Sunday.
Photo of Jeremiah Azu with brother Alex Azu and Lewis Stephens at Welsh Senior Indoor Champs 2025. Photo credit Owen Morgan.
Gold Coast Commonwealth Games competitor Caryl Granville-Moore (Swansea Harriers) has the fastest PB in the women’s senior/under-23 400m hurdles. But she will be challenged by a number of under-23 athletes including Welsh Athletics National Development Programme (NDP) hurdler Sophie Lisk (Cardiff Archers).
Highlights in the field events include Saturday’s women’s javelin, where Freya Jones (Harrow AC), who has been regularly improving the Welsh record, will be looking for her first national title in Cardiff.
Jones will be up against a stacked start-list which includes GB under-23 hopeful Elizabeth Korczak (Brighton and Hove AC). Welsh Commonwealth Games athlete Lauren Evans (Cardiff Athletics) also lines up alongside fellow multi-eventer Lauryn Davey (Swansea Harriers).
Photo of Freya Jones competing in the javelin at British Champs 2024 where she took the silver medal. Photo credit Owen Morgan.
Evans and Davey will also feature in what looks to be an exciting senior women’s/under-23 long jump competition which features Commonwealth Games athlete Rebecca Chapman (Cardiff Athletics).
The multiple Welsh Champion will also be challenged by the likes of Welsh Athletics Transition Programme athlete Jessica Lee (Carmarthen Harriers) and Amy Hughes (Cardiff Archers) who both have bests of over six metres. Like many of the senior/under-23 events there are also a number of non-Welsh competitors in the line-up.
Among the para athletes competing for medals at the championships will be a number of Welsh stars who have shone on the global stage.
Commonwealth Games 100m champion Olivia Breen (City of Portsmouth) lines up in the ambulant/para long jump alongside NDP athletes Will Bishop and Tomi Roberts-Jones. Both Newport Harriers have competed at the Commonwealth Youth Games.
Photo of Olivia Breen competing in the Paralympic Games 2024. Photo credit Getty Images.
Bishop and Roberts-Jones also line up in the para male and female 100m where they will face GB Paralympic Confirmation Level sprinter John Bridge (Cardiff Athletics) and Welsh Athletics Transition Programme star James Ledger (Swansea Harriers).
Another Transition Programme athlete and GB international Michael Jenkins (Swansea Harriers), competes in the senior/under-23 discus. Meanwhile Commonwealth Games and Paralympic thrower Harrison Walsh (Swansea Harriers) goes in the ambulant para male discus. Walsh’s fellow Paralympian Funmi Oduwaiye (Cardiff Athletics) contests the women’s event.
Photo of Mike Jenkins at Winter Throws Championships.
Two NDP wheelchair racers - Toby Richardson (Yate and District) and Owain Terrell (Newport Harriers) - go ahead to head across 100m, 200m and 1500m.
Saturday’s track action gets under way with NDP hurdler Osian Parry (Cardiff Archers) pitting himself against some of the best talent in the UK in the senior/under-23 400m hurdles talent in the UK.
The men’s 400m senior/under-23 race has attracted a large field which features Welsh Olympian Joe Brier (Swansea Harriers), who will be joined by the likes of Charlie Carvell (Telford AC/Welsh Anglo Athletes), NDP sprinter Harry Bradley (Newport Harriers) and the aforementioned John Bridge.
The women’s event boasts a similarly high quality field including double Commonwealth Games star Hannah Brier (Swansea Harriers) and Yemi Mary John (Woodford Green AC), who is the favourite with a best of 50.79 and several other challengers for under-23 selection.
Photo of Hannah Brier racing at the Welsh Senior Champs in 2024. Photo credit Paul Stillman.
The men’s and women’s senior/under-23 100m events also promise to provide an exciting sprinting spectacle.
The men’s Welsh entry features Transitional Programme athlete Joseph Berry (Newport Harriers), Alex Azu, Joshua Brown (Cardiff Athletics) and Great Britain international Sam Gordon (Cardiff Athletics) who has the fastest PB in the field.
The women’s entry features a plethora of sub 12 second sprinters, fastest of which is Renee Regis (Shaftsbury Barnet Harriers) with 11.18. Amongst the quickest Welsh athletes are transition programme multi-eventer Grace Morgan (Cardiff Archers) and Issie Tustin (Cardiff Athletics).
Sunday’s track action gets underway with the return to the track of Commonwealth Games race walker Bethan Davies (Cardiff Athletics) in the senior/under-23 10,000m walk.
Another Welsh Commonwealth Games representative, Amber Simpson (Wrexham AC), kicks off Sunday’s field events in the senior/under-23 hammer where she will be joined by NDP thrower Amelia Fetis (Newport Harriers).
And there will be a third competitor from the 2022 Birmingham games taking part in the senior/under-23 women’s shot put competition in the shape of two-time British champion Adele Nicoll (Birchfield Harriers).
Adele Nicoll on her way to winning the gold medal at the Welsh Senior Champs 2024. Photo credit 2025.
Transition programme athlete Hannah Lake (Cardiff Athletics), who claimed a silver medal at the UK Indoor Athletics Championship earlier this year looks to be the favourite in the women’s senior/under-23 high jump, while fellow UK indoor medallist Mark Mellor (Cardiff Athletics) will be in the medal mix for the men’s senior/under-23 pole vault.
The under-17 events across the weekend promise to showcase some of Wales’ most exciting young athletics stars.
One of the potential clashes of the entire weekend will be the meeting between two of the country's outstanding young NDP sprinters.
Aliyah Afolabi (Cardiff Archers) is the fastest under-17 female in the UK over 100 and 200m, while Darcy Coslett (Llanelli AAC) is the fastest in the UK over 300m and recently won the Welsh under-20 400m title.
Aliyah Afolabi sprinting for gold in the Welsh Senior Champs 2024.
On Sunday, they will contest the 200m, where they are the two fastest athletes by some distance. Afolabi will also contest the 100m, while Coslett doubles up over 300m.
Another hugely promising NDP athlete features in the under-17 women’s 1500m, where Libby Hale (Swansea Harriers) will be the hot favourite.
There are a number of multi eventers across the age groups who will be in for busy weekends, including under-17 NDP all rounders Tianna Odugbesan (Cardiff Archers) and clubmate Cobie Phillips, who are each entered in five events.
The action gets underway at 10.45am on Saturday and 10.30am on Sunday.