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12/06/2025 00:00, In Blog / Track & Field /

Some of the best young athletes in the United Kingdom will be on show at this weekend’s Welsh Junior Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Swansea.

The event has attracted almost 600 entries across the under-13, under-15 and under-20 age groups.

Some of those taking part not only top the rankings within Wales, but also across all the home nations.

One of the weekend’s many highlights is likely to be Saturday’s under-20 women’s 100m.

Leading the way in the battle of Welsh Athletics National Development Programme (NDP) athletes will be hugely promising under-17 prospect Aliyah Afolabi (Cardiff Archers).

Afolabi, who has a PB of 11.62 for 100m, tops the UK rankings over 100 and 200m this year and already has the Welsh under-17 indoor 60m and 200m titles to her name.

The 15-year-old flyer will be up against outstanding under-20 athletes Nell Desir (Cardiff Archers) and Jessica Mantle (Cardiff Athletics), who are both ranked in the UK top five for their age group over 100m.

Both Desir and Mantle were this week named in the Great Britain Under-20 team for the Mannheim Gala in Germany at the end of June.

They will be joined in the GB team by Lewis Stephens (Cardiff Athletics), who will be favourite for the men’s under-20 100m title on Saturday.

NDP sprinter Stephens is the fastest in the field with a personal best of 10.44 which ranks him third in the UK for his age group. But there will be challengers, including Joseph Franklin (Llanelli AAC), who has a best of 10.75.

Stephens and Franklin also contest the 200m on Sunday where they will be joined by Aron Tugwell (Cardiff Archers), who has a PB just 0.08 of a second slower than Stephens. The fastest man in the field, however, will be non-Welsh competitor, Leon Francis (Windsor Slough Eton and Hounslow AC).

Mantle and Afolabi are also likely to clash again over 200m on Sunday. They will also be joined by Darcy Coslett (Llanelli AC) who set a new UK under-17 400m record at the UK Indoor Athletics Championships earlier this year. Millie Webb (Cardiff Athletics) will also be in the medal mix.

Coslett will double up in the 400m which throws up the intriguing prospect of coming up against outstanding young middle distance star Libby Hale (Swansea Harriers).

Welsh athletics fans are already well used to seeing Hale excelling over 800m and 1500m. The multiple Welsh record holder is down on the start list to debut over the one-lap distance on her home track on Saturday before taking on her more familiar distances later in the weekend.

Another Swansea Harrier to look out for will be Millie Gold, who contests the 2,000m steeplechase where she has been in outstanding form this season.

Last weekend Gold gained the 3,000m steeplechase standard for the European Under-20 Championships. Fellow Welsh Athletics NDP athlete Lucy Bickerton (Yeovil Olympiads) will also be toeing the start line.

In the men’s middle distance events, in-form Thomas Loynes (Neath Harriers) will be going for the 800 and 1500 double as the fastest man on paper in both fields, although there will be plenty of competition for the titles.

There will also be plenty of high quality action in the field events. The under-20 women’s shot and the discus feature a number of NDP athletes.

The shot put includes Storm Evans (Carmarthen Harriers) ranked fifth in the UK this season with a best of 12.64m and a PB of 13.17m.

She will be joined by fellow NDP throwers Dolly Evans (Carmarthen Harriers), Lucy Harris (Swansea Harriers) Grace Hawker (Cardiff Archers) and multi-eventer Matilda Quick (Swansea Harriers).

Storm Evans and Harris will be favourites for the discus where both have bests of over 45m, which put them in the top five throwers in the UK this year.

They will again be joined by Dolly Evans and the likes of Summer Evans (Carmarthen Harriers) Ffion Mabey (Carmarthen Harriers) and Ava John (Cardiff Athletics) who all have bests of over 30m.

One of the favourites for a Welsh title in the men’s under-20 field events will be pole-vaulter Jonathan Mellor (Cardiff Archers).

Mellor is ranked fourth in the UK with a best of 4.46m, but he will be challenged by Aharon Graham-Mulvaney (Cardiff Athletics), Harry Newton (Swansea Harriers) and Charlie Shaull (Swansea Harriers). Non-Welsh athlete Arthur Reilly (City of Sheffield), however, is the highest ranked athlete in the field on paper.

In the younger age groups, the girls under-15 high jump looks likely to be one of a number of closely contested events.

The line-up sees three girls boasting a PB of 1.60m – Isobel Dunkeld (Carmarthen Harriers), Alice Sykes-Hand (Deeside AAC) and Katriel Udoh (Swansea Harriers).

In the under-15 boys hammer, Roman Jackson (Swansea Harriers) would appear to be the red-hot favourite with a PB of 45.69m which places him fourth in the UK this year.

Spectators will be forgiven for thinking they are seeing double in the under-13 middle distance events where twins Ella and Gwen Hayes (Deeside AAC) are likely to dominate both the 800 and 1500m races.

Less than a second separates the siblings in the 800m and likewise in the 1500m where they are the only two competitors with PBs under five minutes.

In the under-13 boys events, one of the many athletes to look out for will be Jayden Jones (Rhymney Valley AC), who will be competing in the long jump, high jump and 75m hurdles.

Jones looks to be the one to beat in the long jump with a PB of 4.90m and the 75m hurdles where his PB is more than a second-and-a-half faster than anyone else in the field and makes him the fastest under-13 hurdler in the UK.

However, he will have his work cut out in the high jump where he faces stiff competition in the high jump from Max Gallie (Notts AC) who has a PB of 1.40m and Xavier Wilby Davies (Cardiff Archers), who like Jones has a PB of 1.35m.

There will be a number of para events across the weekend including the T21 wheelchair/frame running 100m on Saturday afternoon.

The line-up includes NDP T54 wheelchair athlete Owain Terrell (Newport Harriers) who has been in brilliant form on the track and on the roads this year.

Among the other para events are a male and female ambulant/para shot competition which has attracted a large entry across several age groups, along with seated shot put and discus competitions where Ellie Bowen (F56) (Cardiff Archers) contests both events.

Commonwealth Youth Games competitor and NDP athlete Tomi Roberts Jones (T37) will contest the ambulant long jump competition as well as the men’s under-20 100m.

The action at the Swansea Bay Sports Park gets underway at 11am on Saturday and Sunday.

Start lists and event details can be found HERE