Written by Daniel Rees
Eight clubs will compete in a one-match showdown next month to earn the right to compete among the UK’s elite athletics clubs in 2026.
City of York and Sale Harriers finished in the top two of the Championship North, while Crawley and Tonbridge took the top two places in the Championship South.
Chelmsford and Herts Phoenix topped the Championship East – where Blackheath and Bromley’s Jack Kavanagh broke the league’s 3000m record. Swansea Harriers and Yeovil Olympiads prevailed in the Championship West.
On Saturday 16 August, all eight clubs will compete in the promotion match in Oxford to see which two teams will be promoted to the NAL Premiership.
NAL Championship South Round 3 – Portsmouth – 19 July
In Portsmouth, Tonbridge – who came so close to securing a place in the top tier at last year’s promotion match – prevailed in the Southern division thanks largely to decathletes Lewis Church, Dante McNichol, and Stephen Simmons who scored a combined total of 142 points.
Church, who has been one of the UK’s leading decathletes in recent years but is yet to finish a season as the UK number one in the event, scored 54pts by winning the 110m H, high jump, and shot put. He also took second in the discus and third in the javelin.
Teammate Dante McNichol earned 52 points, with the discus proving a particular highlight thanks to a six-metre PB. His 42.92m in the first round was too much for even Church to overcome.
The third decathlete of the trio, Stephen Simmons, scored 36pts in four events which included a 6.96m long jump.
The Kent outfit’s women’s team was similarly strong, with full points taken in the 800m, 100m H, javelin, 1500m, and 3,000m.
Bournemouth took second place in the fixture, with former GB multi-eventer Catherine Holdsworth winning the shot put and discus and taking second place in the B-string hammer.
But Crawley’s third-place finish was enough for them to secure their place alongside Tonbridge in the promotion match, with Matthew Overall running a superb PB of 47.62 to win the 400m.
The Sussex club’s female sprinters were in similar form, with Adeline Preston winning both the 100m and 200m while her teammate Isabella Akpoveta repeated the feat in the B-string events.
Finishing fourth, home side Portsmouth took wins in the men’s hammer courtesy of Finley Hanham’s 56.50m throw, and the 200m thanks to Scott Harris’s run of 21.95sec.
Kingston and Poly took fifth place and were helped on their way by Tom White winning the A-string 100m in an equal PB of 10.80sec. Meanwhile, Japanese triple jumper Kuria Kenmochi won the women’s A-string in 12.34m.
Southampton, who were rooted to the bottom of the table, managed to win the women’s 2,000m steeplechase after Kay Simpson ran a huge PB of 7:48.64sec. Tonbridge’s win helped them top the regional group standings by 30.5 match points from Crawley.
NAL Championship North Round 3 – Nottingham – 19 July
Despite finishing third in the North division match in Nottingham, Sale Harriers will join City of York at next month’s promotion match.
They will be hoping that their top sprinter, Marcus McLean, will be in good form after he bagged victories in both the 100m, which he won in 10.73sec, and the 200m, which he won in 21.37sec.
Clubmate Alex Parkinson took joint first in a thrilling battle in the 110m H against Scott Ram, who represented eventual match winners Notts AC. Ram and Parkinson ran 15.30sec and could not be separated by a photo finish, meaning both scored 11 points each for the joint win as opposed to the usual 12 normally awarded for an A-string victory.
Former British 400m H champion Richard Yates finished fourth in the same event and earned Trafford points in the long jump for good measure, though it was not enough to keep them from finishing the match bottom of the table.
City of York’s young steeplechaser, Luke Shacklock, won the 3,000m steeplechase in 9:56.91sec to set a huge new personal best and win the event by 23 seconds. The performance helped York to a second-place finish behind Sale, although they do still top the division overall.
Liverpool Harriers finished the match in third overall, with former GB junior Meg Corker – who is looking to rediscover some of the form which took her to a national indoor title in 2023 – winning the 100m H in 14.03sec.
In the 400m, Jack McLoughlin continued his excellent form this season with a victory in 48.63sec while teammate Joshua Patino won the B-string in 49.79sec.
Notts’ hammer throwers came into their own as both the men and women scored maximum points for the event. Annabelle Crossdale threw 56.91m to win the A-string, while Poppy Bean threw 55.68m to win the B-string.
Archie Small, who threw 60m for the first time this season, won the A-string with a throw of 58.24m and Shay Tarbit prevailed in the B-string with 35.05m.
NAL Championship West Round 3 – Cardiff – 19 July
In the West section, Swansea Harriers made it three league wins in a row, while Yeovil Olympiads’ third-place finish was enough to stave off a challenge from Cardiff, who did not manage to secure qualification for next month’s promotion match despite home advantage.
The discus was one of the strongest events for Swansea, with Lucy Harris and Gwennan Lewis winning the A and B-string for the women. European record-holder in the F38 category Michael Jenkins won the men’s event with 56.17m, while F20 teammate Patrick Swan threw 39.05m to win the B-string. Swan also led Jenkins in the shot put.
Second-place Cardiff dominated the women’s sprints thanks to Issie Tustin and Charlotte Wingfield’s double act in the 100m and 200m. While Tustin won the 100m A and Wingfield the 100m B, the two swapped places for the half-lap event and again secured maximum points.
Yeovil Olympiads’ third-place finish was helped by performances in the long jump, where Lewis Guest leapt to 6.94m to take second in the A-string. U20 Levani Griffiths then jumped a season’s best to win the B-string.
Taking fourth place, Basingstoke’s men thrived by scoring in all but two events. Oskar Harvey-Nash took a standout win in the 800m in 1:54.06sec from Cardiff’s Adam Lane.
Winchester finished second from bottom but comfortably avoided the wooden spoon. U17s Ellie Jepson and Milly Parker were the only two women’s steeplechasers and therefore scored 22 points. Hammer throwers Charlie Elford Pond and Lewis Parkes also took full points in the A-string and B-string hammer.
A disappointing final result for Yate and District was brightened by a double in the men’s 400m. The A-string was won in 48.86sec by Isaac Cory, who was opening his season. Edward Wilson took the B-string in 51.66sec.
NAL Championship East Round 3 – Bromley – 19 July
In the Championship East, Blackheath and Bromley won their home match at Norman Park but it was not enough to surpass Chelmsford and Herts Phoenix’s overall points tally over the three matches.
Chelmsford’s second place meant they won the regional group overall, level on league points with Herts Phoenix, but 18 match points clear of their rivals.
The best performance of the day came from Jack Kavanagh, who broke the league’s 3000m record with a superb clocking of 7:58.23.
He won by over 47 seconds to break the record of 8:04.25, which was set by Olympic marathon runner Phil Sesemann in 2017.
Returning from Rice University for the summer, American collegiate athlete Aryan Padaruth threw 66.27m in the javelin to win by more than 20m. Second-place finisher was clubmate and U20 athlete Max Kennedy.
In the women’s javelin, the home side’s Lauren Farley was similarly dominant, throwing 51.57m as she looks to return to the sort of form which won her a bronze medal at the UK Championships two years ago.
Making the journey from Essex, Chelmsford took second place and were set on their way by former GB junior Onyeka Okoh, who won the first track of the day by running 52.74sec in the 400m H.
Another US athlete returning to the UK for the summer, clubmate Seb Clatworthy cleared 2.07m to win the high jump while U20 Will Steadman won the 800m.
The Essex outfit’s women hit form in the throws courtesy of sisters Jess and Maegan Hopkins who won the A-string and B-string in both the shot put and discus.
Third-placed Herts Phoenix delivered a solid performance and enjoyed success in the women’s distance events, with Khahisa Mhlanga doubling up to win both the 1500m and 3000m.
Herts’ men bagged 42 out of a possible 44 points available in the horizontal jumps, thanks largely to Matthew Cox winning the triple jump in 13.83m and finishing second in the long jump with 6.65m.
Belgrave’s fourth-place finish was dotted with standout performances, particularly in the men’s sprints.
Sam Ige won the 100m A-string in 10.72sec while Joe McGrath won the B-string with 10.98sec. The two teamed up again in the 200m, with Ige winning the A-string in 21.74sec while McGrath finished second in the B-string with 22.48sec.
Unable to build on their third-place finish in the opening match, Havering finished fifth and were thankful to their veteran distance runners Morgan Campbell and Ginte Bailey. Campbell finished second in the 2,000m steeplechase behind
Blackheath’s Chloe Sharp, while Bailey finished second in the B-string, again behind a Bromley athlete, this time Ailbhe Barnes.
Emanuel Iwuchukwu took second in the triple jump with 13.01m.
Herne Hill Harriers finished in sixth but did enjoy a 20-point haul in the 400m hurdles after Jared Fortune took second in the A-string with 56.39sec. Teammate Oliver Hall went 0.05sec better to win the B-string.
Darcie Hey took second in the A-string 1500m with 4:38.65sec while Zara Acton finished in the same position in the discus courtesy of a throw reaching 37.45m.
