There were stand-out gold-medal winning performances from Dina Asher-Smith (club: Blackheath & Bromley, coach: Michael J Ford), Molly Caudery (Thames Valley, Stuart Caudery), Jeremiah Azu (Cardiff, Helen James), as well as a blistering British record time in the women’s 800m heats from Keely Hodgkinson (Leigh, Trevor Painter), as ten British champions were crowned on day one of the Novuna UK Athletics Indoor Championships in Birmingham.
Billed as an unmissable head-to-head prior to the weekend, multi-global medallist Asher-Smith and reigning world 200m silver medallist Amy Hunt (Charnwood, Marco Airale) lined up in the women’s 60m final following commanding performances through qualifying.
Competing at her first national indoors for over a decade, Asher-Smith ultimately reigned supreme, as a superb start saw her put distance between her and the field, before motoring away to clock a championship record time of 7.05.
Increasingly at-home over 60m, Hunt ran a season’s best time of 7.15 to win the silver, with Aleeya Sibbons (Newham & Essex Beagles, Coral Davis) producing a personal best time of 7.29 for bronze.
Post-race, Asher-Smith said: “I am really happy with that time. Ultimately, I came here to win, to put together a good performance, and run a good Championship, so I am glad I have been able to build through the rounds. 7.0 is always great, so I am really happy.”
Reigning world and European champion, Azu once again produced when it mattered most, fending off stiff competition to come through and take the British men’s 60m title with a time of 6.56.
Needing to be at his very best, Azu’s lightning quick pick-up speed after rising put him in command, with the daylight between he and the field only growing as he scorched away to the title from the fast-finishing Romell Glave (Croydon Harriers, Michael Afilaka), who took silver in 6.62, and Jody Smith (Thames Valley, Alex Currie) with 6.63 for bronze.
“It is never easy to defend these titles, and it is not something I take for granted,” said Azu.
“I will be going to world indoors to go and defend my title. This was a dress rehearsal. I actually wanted to run quicker, well I always want to run quicker. The emotions of running in competition always have an impact. Training can’t do that. So, getting through this today gives me confidence going into world indoors.”
The first final of the weekend, the women’s pole vault saw 2024 world indoor champion Molly Caudery open her 2026 season by adding a sixth British title to her haul, victory coming with a best of 4.65m.
Entering with a first-time clearance at 4.25m, Caudery cleared a further four heights at 10cm progressions, finishing up with a close attempt at 4.70m.
Behind Caudery and silver medal winner Jade Spencer-Smith (Lee Valley, Richard Humby), who produced a clutch jump at 4.25m to win silver, was Jade Ive (Sutton & District), her best clearance of 4.15m bringing up another domestic indoor medal.
Caudery said: “I’m feeling a lot of relief after what happened last year. It hasn’t been the easiest comeback. I have had my fair share of injuries, but this one has been quite challenging, so today it was really nice to get back out there.”
In the men’s equivalent, Jax Thoirs (Glasgow Jaguars) and Owen Heard (Harrow AC, Kate Rooney) went blow for blow at 5.45m and 5.55m in what became a straight shootout for the British title, Heard going over the latter with his third and final attempt to push the pressure onto Thoirs.
Holding a cleaner scorecard, but ultimately needing another clearance, Thoirs bowed out of the competition to settle for silver courtesy of his best height of 5.45m on the day, a fine feat after five years away from the sport, with Heard taking the title.
Thomas Walley (Wrexham AC, Andrew Ashurst) won bronze with a best mark of 5.25m, going over at the third attempt.
Having been the stand-out performer through the rounds earlier in the day, including setting a personal best of 8.06 in qualifying quickest through the semi-finals, Abigail Pawlett (Trafford, Ashley Bryant) retained her women’s 60m hurdles title with a commanding run, and another personal best performance, with 8.05.
Emma Nwofur (Thames Valley) matched her silver from last year, running 8.14 to come in behind Pawlett, with Thea Brown (Sale Harriers, Ashely Bryant) completing the podium, her time 8.22.
The last final of the day saw a photo finish in the men’s 60m hurdles, Daniel Goriola (Blackheath & Bromley, Tony Jarrett) edging out Tade Ojora (Windsor Slough Eton & Hounslow) to bring up back-to-back British indoor titles, their times both clocked at 7.78 – a season’s best for Goriola.
Ethan Akanni (Bexley AC, Tony Jarrett) made the final step of the podium, winning bronze courtesy of a time of 7.90.
Stand-alone para athletics finals saw Maddie Down (Halesowen AC, Mike Bennett) and Kevin Santos (City of Norwich, Michael Utting) come out on top in the women’s and men’s 60m finals respectively.
Down blasted out from the gun in the first of the two finals, with her competitors no match as she streaked away to take the win in 8.24, Rebecca Scott (Stevenage & North Herts, Paul Keeble) coming through for silver in a huge personal best of 8.36, and Sophie Hahn (Charnwood, Joe McDonnell) taking bronze in 8.38.
Santos notched a third British title in the men’s race, a blistering start and middle phase of his race seeing him cross over in 6.93 to take the win, with last year’s champion Zac Shaw (Cleethorpes; Leon Baptiste) getting up for silver in 7.08, and Thomas Young (Charnwood; Joe McDonnell) producing a season’s best run of 7.21 in bronze.
In horizontal jumps action, Lucy Hadaway (City of York, Matt Barton) and Tito Odunaike (Marshall Milton Keynes, David Johnson) took victories in the women’s long jump and men’s triple jump respectively.
For Hadaway, a first ever British title win made for a memorable opening competition of 2026, a strong and consistent series of legal jumps culminating with a best effort of 6.45m in round five to take the win.
British number one this year, Alice Hopkins (Harrow AC, Linford Christie) had to settle for silver with a best of 6.26m on the day, while Molly Palmer (Thames Valley, Lukasz Zawila) was 4cm further back to take bronze with 6.22m.
In the men’s triple jump – and having led the competition into round six following a best effort of 15.48m – Odunaike made sure he’d be taking the title home with a superb 15.75m in round six to sew up victory. At just sixteen years of age, Odunaike becomes the youngest ever winner of the men’s British title.
No stranger to a domestic podium, Jude Bright-Davies (Thames Valley, David Johnson) pulled it out of the fire when it mattered most, going out to 15.58m with his final jump to bump him from fourth into silver. Harley Henry (Shaftesbury Barnet, Craig Andrew) completed the podium, taking bronze with 15.46m.
Qualifying action saw a hugely notable appearance from Olympic champion Keely Hodgkinson, who took victory in her heat with a blistering world lead and British record time as part of her plans to race only the heats this weekend.
In a league of her own, Hodgkinson pushed out hard from the gun as part of her plan to lay down a huge marker ahead of the World Indoor Championships, going through the opening 400m in 56.2. Rounding the final bend to a huge ovation from the Birmingham crowd, Hodgkinson’s lean for the line brought up a time of 1:56.33, the third quickest ever indoors, and a revision of her own UK indoor record, previously held at 1:57.18.
Elsewhere, British number one Ben Pattison (Basingstoke & Mid Hants) spearheads the qualifiers into tomorrow’s men’s 800m final, while the in-form Issy Boffey (Enfield & Haringey, Luke Gunn) heads into the women’s showpiece as favourite following a 1:57.43 clocking in Boston last month.
The semi-finals of women’s and men’s 400m action saw Louisa Stoney (Belgrave Harriers) produce a personal best run of 51.92 to lead the way into tomorrow, while Lewis Davey (Newham & Essex Beagles, Trevor Painter) was the pick of the men’s qualifiers.
Results from the Novuna UK Athletics Indoor Championships can be found here.
Action at the Championships resumes tomorrow from 11:30AM: the event timetable can be found here.
