‘Let’s see what I can do,’ was 18-year old Conor Kelly’s parting shot before leaving for the European Under 20 Championships in Tampere, Finland over 8-11 August. What he really meant was only the gold in the 400m would do. After the hurt of settling for bronze at the European U18’s Championships in Slovakia last year, when he had hoped for so much more, winning in Tampere was the single thing on his mind, his whole year of training, physio and working with a dietician, geared to crossing the finishing line first. ‘I couldn’t stop smiling; it was special’ he told the Irish media clamouring for interviews and photos after he was crowned European U20 Champion.

A bashful Anna Garnier surprised herself with a W70 World Masters Record of 6:33.46 in the Dave Clarke Mile Extravaganza on 23 July, sponsored by Lauriston Runners, in the first of fifteen races, which also saw Peter Giles set a new M80 British record, despite running with a hamstring twinge which almost forced him to withdraw.  The meeting also saw serial record-breaker Clare Elms smash her own W60 World Record by over 6 seconds to finish in 5:18.97.

Four Club athletes headed to South Africa on 8 June for the 98th running of the iconic Comrades Marathon, the one they call ‘The Ultimate Human Race’. First staged in 1921, the essence of the race is to unite and connect people 'through a shared celebration of human perseverance and possibility', over approximately 90km between inland Pietermaritzburg and coastal Durban. The race direction alternates each year, with the Up run starting in Durban and the Down run in Pietermaritzburg. 

For 2025 the Surrey Championships in Kingston were split even further – from two parts last year, to three this year – in a further attempt to take in all the events across the age groups without officials being subjected to too long a schedule – such huge numbers of entries has meant that in recent years the event has frequently over-run.

A record number of runners took to the streets for the 2025 London Marathon, as London officially became the biggest marathon in the world with 56,640 finishers crossing the line in this the 45th edition of the event – among them thirty HW athletes including a strong contingent of the usual suspects from the senior road and cross country teams, some experiencing either the distance, or London, for the first time. Despite this being one of the warmest London Marathons on record, eight HW runners  finished in under 2 hours 30 minutes, with four in the top thirty of the Championship wave which led off the mass start. 

The beauty and the beast of the 12-Stage Road Relays is the ever-present sense of jeopardy, think chess in club vests as each team plays out different strategies, alternating, in the case of the Southern Championships, long  (8.6K) and short (5K) legs over 4 hours or so of racing. Who will front-load, who will wait to pounce at the end, and where are the hidden weapons?

Rounding off one of the Club’s most successful Indoor seasons, In the Surrey Indoor Championships at Carshalton over the weekend of 1/2 March, Ryan Facey (below left) took the gold medal in the Senior Men’s 60m, with Monae Winston-Westfield taking the bronze in the women’s event. Jamari Roper also took gold in the U13 Boys 60m, with Angel Gutierrez-Bailey coming home for the bronze. U17 Maia Heward-Mills won gold in the 60m hurdles, and silver in the 60m flat.

At just 17, Conor Kelly took the senior 400m title at the Irish Indoor Championships in Dublin in 46.54. To put that in perspective, his time was quicker than the winning time of 46.70 run by Alex Haydock-Wilson in the UK Indoor Championships, held over the same weekend (22/23 February).

Ankle-deep in mud, the Senior Men finished in eighth in the National Cross Country Championships on Parliament Hill on 22 February, the most iconic venue of them all.  The sight of nearly 2,000 athletes charging up the steep slope at the start of the Men’s race is one of the great moments in sport.‘

Over the weekend of 8/9 February at the England Athletics U15/U17 U20 Indoor Championships in Sheffield the Club’s young sprint stars won two gold medals in less than five minutes.

The Senior Men clinched an historic fifth Surrey Cross Country League title yesterday (8 February) on a bleak and misty Epsom Downs. The U13 Boys also topped their league, as did the U17 Women, while the U13 Girls, U15 Girls, and combined U15 Boys/U17 Men team were second. The Senior Women finished in an excellent eighth in this ultra-competitive league, given injuries have frequently decimated the turnout.

Congratulations to the Senior Men who won the silver medals for the second consecutive year at the Southern Cross Country Championships at Beckenham Place Park – and to the U13 Boys who topped that with team gold, following their bronze in 2024! Full report to follow.

A handful of the Club’s youngsters rang in the New Year with a medal haul in the Southern (SEAA) U13-U17 Indoors Championships in the familiar venue of Lee Valley over the weekend of 11/12 January.

The Senior Men’s team edged closer to a fantastic fifth Surrey League title at West Horsley Place on 11 January, winning the third match in the picturesque setting in which they clinched the title in the last match in 2024. On this occasion they extended their lead at the top of the table to 538 points over second place Belgrave on 721.

At the Surrey County Cross Country Championships on 4 January, there were team medals across the board for the juniors.

Benjy Street took the U20 title, with the team of three, completed by Jack Hobden (9th) and Isaac Lutaya Lutaya (14th), taking the bronze medals.

Alex Milne led Great Britain & Northern Ireland to team bronze as he finished seventh in the IAU 100K World Championships in Bengaluru, India, on 7 December. Competing against runners from 35 countries  in temperatures which rose to around 27C by midday with around 80 per cent humidity, Alex negotiated the 2.696km opening lap, followed by a gruelling twenty loops of 4.865km in a PB of 6:43:21. It goes without saying that it is a new Club record.

Andrew Penney won the SEAA London Cross Country Championships on Parliament Hill on 16 November, with the men's team (completed by Rhys Boorman, Tom Maloney and Joe Clark) finishing in third – a  good omen ahead of the National Championships which return to Hampstead Heath in 2025 – and all the more impressive in that many athletes were absent due to commitments to 10K races the following day

The second Surrey Cross Country League match at Beckenham Place Park on 10 November saw the Men's team notch up a second match win, following the victory on Wimbledon Common, scoring 199 points to second place Belgrave's 263, to stretch their lead at the top of the League table to 115 points with two more matches to go in the new year.

The U17 Men’s team of Noah Fernandez, Alex McGuigan and Pancho Panchev were victorious at the South of England Cross-Country Relays at Wormwood Scrubs on Saturday, 19 October, finishing 12 seconds clear of second-placed Chiltern Harriers over the 3km (approx) course.

The Senior Men’s team got off to a great start in defence of their Surrey Cross Country League title on Wimbledon Common on Saturday. All ten scorers finished in the top thirty to top the leaderboard with 153 points over Belgrave Harriers in second, with 204, on what was home ground for both Clubs. As always , the key to success in these races is turning out in numbers, and forty Club athletes duly answered the call to compete.

Where there are medals to be won you will inevitably find the unstoppable U13 Boys. Having claimed the National Cross Country title only a week earlier, the team were triumphant again at the Southern Road Relays at Rushmore Arena, Aldershot, on 21 September, albeit with a slightly different line-up as the age groups returned to normal. This time the victory went to the A team of Ivan Derian, Thomas Hennigan and Max Harrison, whose storming finish saw him record the second quickest final stage of the day. The same trio then went on to take the silver medals at the National Road Relays in Sutton Park, nr. Birmingham on 5 October.

The Club enjoyed its best results of recent times at the National Cross Country Championships at Weston Park, Staffordshire, on Saturday, with victory for the U13 Boys, led home by Theo Creed, who took the individual title in an impressive show of front-running – the first individual medal for the Club since Jeina Mitchell took the U15 Girls title in 1990. The U17 Men’s team won bronze medals, led in by Benjy Street, who was an excellent 16th, while the Senior Men finished fifth, the highest placing since the team of 1974 finished in bronze medal position (the team of 1970 were silver medallists).

The Club’s Masters athletes made history on 31 August at Horspath, Oxford when not only did the Men’s and Women’s teams both qualify for the Vets League Finals for the first time, but the women’s team clinched victory – by half a point! The Final was the culmination of a brilliant season in which both teams won every match in their League, and notched up 87 personal bests and 77 season’s bests along the way!

Two of the Club's athletes were invited into the spotlight at the UK Championships in Manchester on 30 June, in which the competition in every discipline ramped up as the event doubled as the trials for the Olympic Games in Paris.

U17 Conor Kelly (below) reaped the benefits of warm-weather training in Jamaica when, competing up an age-group, he won the gold medal in the 400m at the Southern U20 and Senior Championships in Eton on 9 June, in a PB of 47.38.

Thanks to a PB at the 1500m Night at Wimbledon Park on 29 May Charlie Wyllie has received an invitation to the UK Athletics Championships in Manchester on 29/30 June, where he will join sprinter Chad Miller, who goes in the 200m, as the best of the best compete for national titles and places on the team for the Paris Olympics.

At the May Championships over the weekend of 11/12 May, there were gold medals for U15 Oliver Cartwright in the triple jump, and George Johnson in the javelin. As an U17 George finished last season ranked 5th in the UK, and already in his first year as an U20 he is ranked eighth with a PB of 55.99m.

Showtime on London's streets, and a posse of 28 Club athletes were amongst over 53,000 finishers at this year's TCS London Marathon.

The Senior Men’s A team put in a record-equalling performance, finishing in sixth place at the National Road Relays, having flirted with the possibility of a bronze medal at the halfway mark, in the strong and swirling winds in Sutton Park, near Birmingham.

Congratulations to the Senior Men’s team who won historic bronze medals at the South of England 12-Stage Road Relay Championships in Milton Keynes on Saturday (which doubles as the qualification event for the Nationals) – the first medals for 52 years! Not to be outdone in the bright sunny, but windy conditions, the B team also made history, finishing in 14th overall and second B-team. The day was notable, too, for a solo U15 Boys 5K bronze for Thomas Whorton, who came home in 16:40, a PB by one minute, and a new HW Club record.