Weekly Update - 20th May 2026

BMC Trafford Grand Prix, Manchester (Sat. 16th May)

A strong early-season result for Holly Dixon. Running 4:08.95 for second place in the women’s A race at the BMC Grand Prix marks a personal best, breaking her own club record, and suggests she’s in excellent shape heading into the summer track season.

Southern Athletics League, Eltham (Sat. 16th May)

Our first Southern Athletics League fixture of the season couldn’t have started any better, reports Mick Bond, as we ran out convincing winners over teams from Dartford, Southwark, St Albans, Herts Phoenix and Kent AC.

On the men’s side we welcomed back Alan Porter after a short break of around 30 years with his natural ability still showing through, with wins in the shot and hammer, plus second places in the discus and javelin. Elijah Olaleye had the outstanding men’s performance of the day with a 53.98 timing over the 400 hurdles and there was nearly a clean sweep across the sprints courtesy of Dayne Douglas, Ekene Ogbonna, Omari Markland Montgomery and Hans Nmaju.

Nathaniel Olalere & Alan Porter

As usual there were good points for us in the hurdles with debutant Nathaniel Olalere impressing over the 110 barriers.

For the women, Danielle Agyemang-Talbot braved the 400m for the first time and excelled, clocking 55.20 — a time that should place her in the UK top 10 for Under-18s this year. Meredith Cummins (U18) took a remarkable 19 seconds off the Under-20 women’s 2000m steeplechase record and also broke the senior women’s record in the process, despite falling at the first barrier and displaying a water jump technique that could only be described as a work in progress!

Record Breakers - Meredith Cummins & Natalie Mann

Natalie Mann picked up valuable points for the team with victories in the discus and B-string hammer, alongside second place in the shot, where she improved her own W40 club record to 8.63m. Once again, our sprinters came close to maximum points across the 100m and 200m, this time courtesy of Doyin Aderinto, Nirah Valinejad and Shawanna Umunna.

Cader Idris Mountain Race, Dolgellau, Wales (Sat. 16th May)

Six of us made the annual pilgrimage to Cader Idris this year, and it is something of a pilgrimage: you go to challenge yourself, both physically and mentally, and you go to have a weekend away with some mates, but you also go to pay your respects to the mountain, reports Clem Dixon. It doesn't seem like that at first, half an hour into the race and you have been on roads, then paths through a forest, and you have only accounted for 150 metres of the 900 you need to ascend. Then it ceases to be a race, it is just you and the mountain. Not you against the mountain, the mountain is no more your enemy than it is your friend, the mountain just is.

Rain, poor visibility and a significant wind chill made for taxing conditions but Dan Allinson gave a good account of himself on his debut Cader race, indeed his first proper fell race. John O'Mahony reached the summit ahead of him but Dan overtook him on the steepest section of the descent to be the first Cambridge Harrier home. Similarly James Floyd, having been telling everyone that he was nursing a niggle and was going to take it easy, descended like a demon, overtaking Christian Poulton to record a massive eight minute PB. Perhaps Christian had it in the back of his mind that he was down to race again the next day.

Results: 76th Dan Allinson 1:56:51 (summit 1:09:01), 86th John O'Mahony (No 271) 1:58:05 (1:06:10), 134th James Floyd (No 110) 2:07:32 (1:16:25), 161st Christian Poulton (No 287) 2:12:21 (1:14:56), 238th Clem Dixon (No 85) 2:36:24 (1:29:10), 285th Steve Brown (No 39) 3:07:38 (1:38:11).

Ultra-Trail Snowdonia Eryri 25k (Sun. 17th May)

Sunday saw me travelling to Llanberis in the heart of Eryri (Snowdonia) National Park for the Eryri 25k, part of the Ultra-Trail Snowdonia by UTMB weekend, writes Christian Poulton, coming just a day after competing in the Ras y Gader Cader Idris Mountain Race in Dolgellau, so my legs were carrying some extra fatigue going into the start line.

With thunderstorms forecast over Yr Wyddfa (Snowdon), organisers rerouted the field onto the low-level bad weather route and whilst we missed the iconic Snowdon summit, the alternative course was no pushover — taking in Moel Eilio (726m) and Foel Gron (629m) with a combined total elevation gain of +1,100m across the 22k actual course distance.

I finished in 2:50:57, placing 194th from 753 finishers and 2nd in the V60 age category — a very pleasing result given the circumstances. Credit to the organisers, marshals and volunteers for putting on a well-run event in challenging conditions.

Hackney Half-Marathon (Sun. 17th May)

Six club members took on the Hackney Half Marathon on Sunday, producing a strong set of results led by Stephen Thompson, who was first home for the club in an impressive 1:23:29. Close behind was Simon Humm in 1:24:08, just seconds adrift.

The remaining finishers were Oktawiusz Kawecki (1:29:02), Vern Sillitoe (1:29:36), Ben Thompson (1:30:19) and Hakim Mendjeli, who completed the course in 1:51:12.