Continued success at UK indoors

Woodford performances at the UK indoor championships were led by three previous champions who again earned medals, with Cindy Sember winning her third British indoors event to qualify for next month's World Indoor Championships in Glasgow.

Woodford hopes were high going in to the women's 60m hurdles but it was only Cindy Sember who qualified for the final with a dominant 8.02. New members Jasmine Clark and Yasmin Uwakwe and HCA member Jane Davidson all missed out with semi-final times of 8.57, 8.77 and 8.58 respectively. Cindy confirmed her status as favourite in the final with a clear win in 7.99, her fastest time in this country and her seventh national title. Mary Elcock was the other Woodford athlete to place on day one, 5th in the long jump in 5.92 in what is normally her second event having chosen to have a winter break from the triple jump where she took the UK indoor title a year ago. The other competitors on Saturday were Shona Vincent who was fifth in her heat of the 60m (7.78) and Louise Gilbert sixth in her 800m heat in 2:13.34.

First up on Sunday was Georgina Forde-Wells who was looking to add the indoor title to her surprise UK outdoor triple jump championship from last year. A solid 12.78 in the second round was sufficient for second place at the third round cut, but she struggled to find her rhythm after this effort. Despite no other competitive jumps she only lost out on a medal in the final round, finishing 5th. Will Grimsey was another athlete who came into his event as favourite as well as the defending indoor high jump champion, having jumped 2.20 in Belgium last weekend. He struggled to find consistency on the bouncy Birmingham surface, though a third time clearance at only his second height of 2.12 was enough to secure a medal of some colour. Another third time clearance at 2.15 left him no worse than second, but by the time he cleared 2.18 at the second time of asking he already knew he needed to go higher still to win and three failures at 2.21 confirmed his silver medal on count-back.

Sam Khogali first won the UK indoor title in 2022 and took the bronze medal in 2023. He completed the medal set this year having led until late in the final round thanks to his third round effort of 7.41. It briefly looked as though his final jump may be enough to match the new lead of 7.46, but it was not to be. Ben Portykus took part in a crowded 3000m final involving 19 athletes. He tried to stay out of the chaotic middle of the pack by hanging back slightly but this position left him unable to respond when the leaders kicked on and he ended up 16th in 8:08.33.