BAC’s Biggleswade Open goes from strength to strength
A record 280 athletes entered BAC’s 2025 Biggleswade Open Graded Track & Field Meeting, which also incorporated our Annual Club Championships, at the Sandy track on Saturday September 27.
Many of those athletes, from 65 athletics and running clubs across South East England, East Anglia, the Midlands, Yorkshire and Devon, multi-evented, resulting in a total of nearly 470 entries − more than 100 up on the comparable 2024 event. Those athletes, who included several in the UK top 10 for their respective age group events, ranged in age from U-11 to V-80.
Most of the field events attracted the maximum number of entries accepted, requiring five of them to be split into two pools. Many of the track events also generated similar levels of interest, resulting in multiple graded races – including the 100m (14 races), 200m (7), 800m (3) and 400m (3).
Performance highlights included a new stadium record for the women’s 5,000 metres (beating the previous one set only a month ago) by Luhané Smith, an U-20 athlete from Windsor Slough Eton & Hounslow AC, with a PB of 17:43.64.
Notable performances by BAC athletes included at least three new club records:
● Oran Blake, U-17M discus - 34.65m (beating his own previous record by over 2m).
● Sandra Ingham, V-65W discus - 19.09m (beating her own previous record of 17.68m).
● Natalie Morgan setting a first CR for the V-45W 5000m with a time of 22:17.94.
There were also several BAC event wins, an array of PBs and many club 2025 champions’ titles decided (to be covered in a second report** in a few days’ time).
In addition to the competitors, there were a couple of national athletics coaches in attendance. One of them was Lewis Capes, son of British former shot putter and World's Strongest Man winner Geoff Capes, who has taken athletes in throwing events to national and international acclaim.
Putting on such a major event requires a huge amount of work and organisation by BAC, both in planning and on the day. Key figures in that included meeting director and track referee David Brown; administration, Darren Janssen; field referee, Paul Brooks − the Bedfordshire AAA county secretary and a level 4 national field official who supports us on many occasions; and chief timekeeper, Carol Brunning. Huge thanks to you all and the many other club members who helped with various events on the day to ensure everything ran smoothly.
PHOTOS: Thanks to Louise Cant, Doug Hammond, Melissa Knox and Phil Hastings for the photos which accompany this report.
**Details of the many notable performances by BAC athletes at the meeting, including new club records, new club champions, event wins, PBs, etc, will be covered in a report to be posted following publication of the official results on the Power of 10 website – hopefully in the next week or so. That report will be accompanied by more photos of BAC athletes, both in action and relaxing between events.