This is the fifth and final piece on the 2025 British Indoor Championships, written by Stuart Weir, our RunBlogRun senior writer for Europe.
Final thoughts on the Microplus British Indoor Athletics Championships
The Microplus British Indoor Athletics Championships offered spectators seven hours of action on Saturday and four and a half hours on Sunday, with 28 separate events. Microplus provides business services, including Timing, Data and results Systems, and TV Graphics services for major sporting events—thanks for asking.
In an ideal world, spectators would see Jake Wightman tussling Josh Kerr and Dina Asher-Smith vying with Darryl Neita to be the fastest over 60m. The reality was that none of them were competing. In fact, Katarina Johnson-Thompson and Georgia Bell were the only GB Paris individual medallists on the show. Of the 24 Paris relay medalists, only seven were competing in Birmingham. But who can blame them? As Jemma Reekie told me, she did not think that peaking in February would help her chances of being at her best for the Worlds in mid-September.
Of course, it would have been great to see Dina v Daryll, Josh v Jake, Georgia v Laura, Keely v Jemma – but that would never happen in February in Birmingham. It is easy to be disappointed seeing a British woman’s pole-vault won at 4.21 without our two 4,90 women – Holly retired and Molly having her wild-card for the worlds. 6.59 won the women’s long jump – a fascinating competition with the lead changing hands constantly – but not long ago, Britain had three 7-meter athletes, Shara, Jazmin, and Larraine.
There were great races, such as a world-class performance by Amber Anning in the 400.
Bianca Williams’ gold in the 60m and Lina Nielsen’s silver in the 400m were popular successes from two athletes with personal challenges. I will long remember Hannah Nuttall’s strong finish to beat Laura Muir (3000m), George Mills’s battling finish to win the men’s 3000, or Georgia Hunter Bell having too much for the field in the 1500. I could go on.
National championships tend to be about the winners, but don’t forget the athletes just short of national standard, for whom getting a lane in the nationals is the highlight of their season. Years ago, I remember writing about a local Oxford athlete who qualified for the nationals and found herself in the next lane to Christine Ohuruogu, the Olympic champion. Not many sports can offer that. This year, a group of hurdlers and shot-putters competed alongside KJT – a memory to treasure.
Finally, there was the success of the teenagers – see separate post – towards 100 of them. They set age-group records, ran and jumped PRs, and even became British Champions. The British Indoor Athletics Championships may have stared with fire, but they delivered fun, excitement, and high-quality sport.
