National titles and qualification for next month’s World Indoors in Torun are at stake this weekend at the Utilita Arena.
The Novuna UK Indoor Championships on Saturday and Sunday (Feb 14-15) will act as the British trials for next month’s World Indoor Championships in Poland.
The meeting is covered on the BBC website and iPlayer and you can keep up to date with results, news and interviews on the AW social media channels and website.
Amber Anning
The reigning world indoor 400m champion looks in great shape to defend her title in Poland next month as she set a world lead of 50.51 in Arkansas last weekend. Could Nicola Sanders’ UK indoor record of 50.02 from 2007 be in danger? Outdoors, Anning placed fifth in the 2024 Olympic and 2025 world finals, improving the UK record at the former to 49.29.
Dina Asher-Smith
After a couple of coaching switches in recent years, the British record-holder at 60m, 100m and 200m is now with Michael Ford in Texas and has started her indoor season in fine form with 60m victories in Boston and New York. This is her first appearance at the national indoor championships for 11 years.
Amy Hunt
The 23-year-old burst into the spotlight last summer when winning silver in the 200m at the World Champs behind Melissa Jefferson-Wooden of the United States. After a spell at Cambridge University where she struggled to juggle academics and athletics, she has been thriving lately with coach Marco Airale in Italy and comes into these championships with some decent recent results behind her, including equalling her 7.09 PB in Belgrade on Wednesday.
Jeremiah Azu
The reigning world and European indoor 60m champion is rounding into good form again this winter and keen to defend his global crown in Poland next month. After a stint living and training in Italy, he is back and settled in Cardiff with his old coach Helen James and looking forward to a year that includes multiple major championship opportunities.
Read more about Azu here.
Romell Glave
The 26-year-old won bronze in the 100m at the European Champs in 2024 and made the semi-finals at the World Champs in Tokyo last year. But he has already started his indoor season with a 6.51 PB over 60m in Stockholm to beat Azu and Olympic 100m silver medallist Kishane Thompson of Jamaica.
Keely Hodgkinson
The Olympic 800m champion returns to the national indoor championships after injury kept her out of action at this time last year. She faces among others Issy Boffey, who held the world leading mark of 1:57.43 until Audrey Werro of Switzerland beat it this week. Boffey will no doubt have great support due to having studied at university in the city.
Scott Lincoln
The shot putter is unbeaten at the UK Champs for the past decade and appears to be thriving in his new training set-up in Melbourne. He warmed up for this weekend with a 20.76m victory at the Australian ‘short track’ champs last weekend before travelling back to Britain.
Last winter he was disappointed with 12th place at the World Indoors in Nanjing and he narrowly missed a medal at the European Indoors in Apeldoorn. But later that year he finished eighth in Tokyo, the best place by a British shot putter, male or female, in world championships history.
Georgia Hunter Bell
The 32-year-old has wintered well and opened her season in Karlsruhe last weekend with a world leading mark of 4:00.04 at 1500m. The world 800m silver medallist is entered for the metric mile this weekend where she will be going for a hat-trick of national indoor titles at the distance.
Molly Caudery
The world indoor champion from 2024 in Glasgow has not had a smooth ride at major championships since then. She bombed out at the Paris Olympics and then injured herself warming up at the World Champs last summer. But at her best she is comfortably the British No.1 right now and after easing into winter training following her injury last September she is building back into world beating form.
Read more about Caudery here.
Josh Kerr
Like Caudery, Kerr is a world indoor champion from Glasgow, where he won the 3000m gold. The world 1500m champion in 2023 was runner-up to Cole Hocker over two miles recently at the Millrose Games and is targeting the World Indoor Champs in Poland over the longer distance instead of his specialist outdoor 1500m.
Hannah Nuttall
The reigning UK 5000m and indoor 3000m champion, Nuttall placed fifth and sixth in the last two European indoor 3000m finals and was a fine eighth in the World Championships 5000m in Tokyo last year. She faces tough opposition in Birmingham this weekend, though, such as rising star Innes FitzGerald and in-form Katie Snowden.
Ben Pattison
After winning world 800m bronze in 2023, Pattison ran 1:42.27 in Monaco in 2024 to go No.2 on the UK all-time rankings behind Seb Coe. Last year was interrupted by a stress fracture but he still made the team for the Worlds in Tokyo and is enjoying a rare indoor season this winter.