Sixteen championship records fall at possibly the hottest and highest quality meeting in the event’s 100-year history
Much has changed since the first English Schools Championships took place in September 1925. Back then, a wet and windy Crystal Palace saw athletes in the under-14 age group from just 13 counties battling for medals in eight boys events, six girls disciplines and a tug o’ war.
Nowadays around 2000 athletes from 46 counties compete in 98 events at the flagship summer track and field event. Cinder tracks and leather shoes have been replaced by synthetic surfaces and super spikes. Global warming and a mid-July date on the fixtures calendar means the weather is always likely to be a bit sunnier too.
Some things are unchanged, though, and with the event celebrating its centenary year, a number of former champions returned to take part in the traditional parade on Saturday lunchtime. It was an emotional moment as the proud winners of yesteryear shrugged off their arthritis and various other ailments to rub shoulders with the class of 2025.
The current crop of athletes rose to the occasion, too, producing 16 championship records over the weekend – with 11 falling on Saturday – with sprinters and hurdlers flourishing in conditions more associated with Benidorm than Birmingham.
Isla Perry set a championship record twice over the weekend. The Devon athlete firstly clocked 39.18 in her junior girls 300m heats on Friday to beat Jeslyn Agyei-Kyem’s championship record of 39.20 before going even quicker in Saturday’s final with 38.61, beating Amber Anning’s UK under-15 girls record of 38.73 in the process.
Annabelle Fasuba, who also represents Devon, erased Diane Smith’s championship record of 24.0 from 1989 in the junior girls 200m with 23.72 (0.0) – a time that also equalled Katharine Merry’s national record.
For Fasuba, athletics ability runs in the family as her dad, Olusoji, won the world indoor 60m title in 2008 and used to hold the African 100m record with 9.85, whereas her mum, Ngozi, ran in the 4x400m at the 2004 Olympics. Both parents ran for Nigeria but they live in Plymouth where Olusoji works for the Royal Navy.
Fasuba is only 13 but has attracted the attention of BBC already, who featured her in their local West Country news last month.
Divine Iheme, the junior boys 100m winner in 2024, has also earned plenty of media coverage lately with BBC and Sky, plus newspapers like The Times and Telegraph featuring him.
In Birmingham on Saturday he lived up to the hype, too, by breaking Joel Pascall-Menzie’s inter boys 100m championships record of 10.48 with 10.41 (1.2).
Another athlete in record-breaking form was Lucia Bertacchini. The Hampshire athlete took down Perri Shakes-Drayton’s English Schools 300m hurdles inter girls record of 41.48 with 41.13 and said: “I knew I had to nail the sixth and seventh hurdles and as soon as I crossed the finish line there was relief and I was really proud.”
Bertacchini steps up to 400m hurdles next year and admits that the prospect of trying to follow in the footsteps of stars like Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Femke Bol is inspiring. “It’s amazing to look at my event and see so many people doing so well in it,” she added.
There are always some upsets at the English Schools, though, and one came in the inter girls 100m. Celine Obinna-Alo, 15, has been impressing lately with her raw talent and is being coached in the North East of England by Richard Kilty. Yet she was defeated here by Shivelle Marshall of Surrey, who clocked 11.75 (0.2) to beat Obinna-Alo by 11 hundredths of a second.
Matt Hudson-Smith won an Olympic 400m silver last year in Paris but on Saturday his English Schools senior boys 200m record of 20.98 fell as Ethan Franklin of Essex clocked 20.85 (-0.2), one hundredth of a second ahead of Mayo Alabi of West Midlands. Ironically, the record was broken on Hudson-Smith’s home track too.
In the senior boys 400m hurdles, Max Robertson’s 51.5 championship record from 1982 was beaten by Rayhan Mourtada with 51.45 as he held off Kent team-mate Cheyne West.
In the throws, Harriet Court of Kent threw 52.68m in the senior girls javelin to beat Izzy Jeffs’ championship record of 50.54m from 15 years ago.
Another javelin thrower, this time junior boy Hugo Bucher of Middlesex, threw 69.89m to win his event by almost 12 metres as he beat Ben East’s championship best of 66.95m.
There were also championship records on Saturday in all three of the relatively new mixed relay 4x100m races. Lancashire won the senior race with their quickest time of 44.21 coming in the heats. Cheshire won the inter gold in 43.90, whereas Devon took the junior title in 45.98.
Illustrating the link between different generations, Arthur Reilly, the son of multiple high jump winner Brendan, won the senior boys pole vault with 4.60m.
READ MORE: English Schools day one report
Middle-distance runners perhaps weren’t fans of the hot weather, though. It led to a few races being slow and tactical. One of these was the inter boys 1500m where Evan Grime of Greater Manchester loitered at the back of the field in the early stages before stretching out impressively with 500m to go to win by half a second in 4:02.11 as he celebrated to the crowd in the final metres ahead of Freddie Rowe of Essex.
Similarly, Rafferty Mirfin of West Yorkshire went through the first lap of the senior boys 800m outside 60 seconds but stormed home with a 51.4 second final lap to clock 1:52.78 ahead of Tom Waterworth of Cambridgeshire.
READ MORE: 100 years of the English Schools
Zoe Gilbody of Shropshire admitted she struggled in the heat but won through in the senior girls 3000m in 9:23.00. “It was a tough one, really tactical and got faster,” she said, “which is a painful way for me to run it. I wanted until 600m to go and then made my move.”
The oldest championship record at the championship survived another year too. Joe Scanes of Kent was an impressive winner of the inter boys 3000m but his 8:29.69 was a nine seconds short of Kevin Steere’s seemingly invincible mark from 1971.
2025 championship records
Saturday
Ethan Franklin (Essex), senior boys 200m, 20.85
Rayhan Mourtada (Kent), senior boys 400m hurdles, 51.45
Harriet Court (Kent), senior girls javelin, 52.68m
Lucia Bertacchini (Hampshire), inter girls 300m hurdles, 41.13
Divine Iheme (Oxfordshire), inter boys 100m, 10.41
Isla Perry (Devon), junior girls 300m, 38.61
Annabelle Fasuba (Devon), junior girls 200m, 23.72
Hugo Bucher (Middlesex), junior boys javelin, 69.89m
Lancashire, mixed relay seniors, 44.21
Cheshire, mixed relay inters, 43.90
Devon, mixed relay juniors 45.98
READ MORE: Golden oldies light up athletes’ parade
Friday
Daniel Emegbor (Hertfordshire), inter boys long jump, 7.80m
Leila Newth (Middlesex), inter girls triple jump, 12.59m
Isla Perry (Devon), junior girls 300m heats, 39.18 (improved in Saturday’s final)
Adanna Udechuku (Essex), junior girls shot, 14.08m
Essex, 400m senior boys, 40.55
Surrey, 4x100m junior boys, 43.33
Friday’s coverage is here.
Full results here.