Athlete of the Match award winners have been announced for third round of the 2026 National Athletics League season, as well as the Championship Promotion Match, with City of Sheffield and Dearne hurdler Alicia Barrett taking two of them.
The awards are decided by the best performance according to World Athletics point-scoring tables across all track and field events, with all athletes set to receive £125 in cash and a glass trophy.
In the NAL Premiership match at Eton on 22 August, Harrow’s Charlotte Payne threw the hammer 71.82m for a league record.
She previously threw 72.51m as a guest at the same venue in 2023, but this was the best ever women’s hammer performance by a point-scoring club athlete in the competition. It was also the best performance by a female competitor on the day, worth 1123 points.
Birchfield Harriers’ Commonwealth Games silver medallist Jake Minshull was the best male athlete as he ran a time of 49.97s in the 400m hurdles for a score of 1131 points.
Three-time UK champion Barrett clocked an NAL Championship record time of 13.39s in the 100m hurdles, which means it was the best second-division time since the competition re-formed with men and women competing alongside one another ahead of the 2021 season.
That was worth 1098 points to claim the Championship’s Female Athlete of the Match prize, while fellow City of Sheffield and Dearne runner Hakan Dalbal’s mark of 46.85s for 400m took the male award with 1055 points.
As for the Promotion Match in which Sheffield took victory and went up along with Chelmsford AC, Barrett’s time of 13.69s was enough for 1058 points. Onyeka Okoh claimed the male athlete award for fellow-promoted side Chelmsford with 51.87s in the 400m
hurdles. That is worth a total of 1039 World Athletics points.
Payne also received the same award after round one, along with Charlie Husbands, Charlotte Henrich and Vojtech Berger. In round two, awards were collected by Jake Norris, Hannah Brier, Zara Obamakinwa and David Laws.
NAL Athlete of the Season Awards will be announced this week.