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14/05/2026 00:00, In Blog /

An eye-catching combination of established stars and rising young talent will represent Wales at the annual Loughborough International this weekend.

The prestigious event held at the Paula Radcliffe Athletics Stadium boasts an extra air of excitement this weekend as it is held on the final day Welsh athletes can record nomination standards for this summer’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

Team wise, Wales will be up against strong selections representing England, Scotland, Loughborough University and Great Britain and Northern Ireland Under-20s.

The Welsh team will feature the likes of last year’s World Indoor 60m Champion Jeremiah Azu (Cardiff Athletics) and 19-year-old Charlotte Henrich (Invicta East Kent AC), who both recently represented Great Britain at the World Relay Championships in Botswana.

Henrich, who last year struck 400m gold at the European Under-20 Championships in Finland, is one of a number of athletes who have successfully switched allegiance to Wales in recent years.

As well as competing in the individual 400m on Sunday, the double Commonwealth Youth Games silver medallist will be part of an exciting Welsh 4x400 mixed relay team with one eye on nomination for this summer’s Glasgow Commonwealth Games.

Selected in the squad alongside Henrich, who ran a brilliant new PB of 51.24 in Belfast last weekend, will be two-time Commonwealth Games sprinter Hannah Brier (Swansea Harriers) her Olympian brother Joe Brier (Swansea Harriers) and Evan Blackman (Corby AC), who will all also be competing individually.

Azu, who finished fifth in the 100m final at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, will be part of a rapid-looking Welsh 4x100m team which features brother Alex Azu (Cardiff Athletics), Transitional Programme prospect Lewis Stephens (Cardiff Athletics) and Owain Lloyd-Hughes (Swansea Harriers).

Lloyd-Hughes, who has this year returned to the kind of blistering form he showed back in 2019 and 2020, will also be competing in the individual 100m, while Alex Azu goes in the individual 200m.

The 37-strong Welsh team is captained by Olivia Breen (Portsmouth) and Patrick Swan (Cornwall AC).

Birmingham Commonwealth Games 100m gold medallist and hugely experienced Paralympian Breen will compete in the para long jump and 100m, while multiple UK Championships medallist Swan will contest the men’s shot put.

The field events will feature a number of other hugely talented Welsh throwers including Adele Nicoll (Birchfield Harriers) who is continuing her return to track and field following her bobsleigh exploits at the Milan Cortina Winter Olympics earlier this year. 

Nicoll, now coached by American double World shot put champion Chase Jackson, will be contesting the shot put having thrown a Commonwealth Games B standard in her first competition of the year in the USA last month.

Another Welsh thrower who excelled at the same event in Oklahoma will be lining up in the men’s discus competition at Loughborough.

Fellow Great Britain International James Tomlison (Birchfield Harriers) produced a huge new PB of 63.18m – 33cms short of the Commonwealth Games A nomination standard – in the US.

Meanwhile, Harry Weintraub (Welsh Anglo Athletes), who has also been impressing Stateside for Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, competes in the hammer having posted a new PB of 67.42m earlier this year.

Two promising young National Development Programme throwers Lucy Harris (Swansea Harriers) and Amelia Fettis (Newport Harriers) will be competing in women’s the discus and hammer respectively. Both have new personal bests to their name already this year.

Elsewhere in the field, triple jumper Reese Robinson (Harrow AC) will be hoping to reproduce the kind of form she enjoyed at the UK Indoor Athletics Championships in Birmingham earlier this year where she won a silver medal with a new PB of 13.05m.

Another medallist from the UK Indoor Championships will be contesting the high jump, where Hannah Lake (Cardiff Athletics) will be looking to get on the podium having won bronze in Birmingham.

While Tom Walley (Wrexham AC), who also claimed a bronze medal at the same championships, will contest the pole vault having reached a new best height of 5.35m in Manchester earlier this month.

In the women’s long jump, Amy Hughes (Cardiff Archers) will be no stranger to pulling on the red of Wales as she also represents the nation as a hockey goalkeeper.

In March, Hughes played for Wales in the Hockey World Cup qualifying tournament in India, having won long jump gold at the Welsh Indoor Athletics Championships and recorded a PB of 6.39m at the Cardiff Met JumpFest in February.

Another of Wales’ established para sprinters, James Ledger (Swansea Harriers), will run in the men’s para 100m, where he will be re-united with former guide runner Makoye Kampengele (Cardiff Athletics).

The longer track races also feature some prodigious young Welsh talent. Millie Gold (Swansea Harriers), who represented Great Britain at the European Under-20 Championships in Finland last summer, will contest the 3,000m steeplechase.

Away from the Welsh team, hugely promising young Welsh sprinter Nell Desir (Cardiff Archers) has been selected as part of the Great Britian Under-20 women’s 4x100m squad.

Sunday’s action, which will also include schools races and guest events, starts at 10.15am. The senior events start at 10.30 with the first match event, the women’s 100m hurdles, at 11.22am.

The day’s competition is rounded off with the UK Athletics 10,000m Championships men’s and women’s races later in the evening.

Among those lining up in the women’s race, which is scheduled to start at 7.30pm, will be Paris Olympics marathoner Clara Evans-Graham (Pontypridd Roadents).

EVENT INFORMATION

The full Welsh team is:

Men's Team