2021 Award Winners

Athlete of the year female – ALEX BELL

BMC regular Alex crowned her best ever season with a superb 7th place in the Olympic final delighting all at the BMC who have watched her grace so many BMC races. Her 5th sub-2-minute clocking of the season took her to 6th on the UK all-time list. Alex’s season had opened with BMC races, a 4:14.39 1500m win at Birmingham and a 2:00.14 800m win in the Trafford Grand Prix, the later was the fastest all female 800m time of the BMC season. One of those sub-2 clockings came in a BMC race at Chester-Lee-Street with 1:59.87 being the fastest time of the BMC season.

Athlete of the year male – Elliot Giles:

Elliot’s 3:37.01 1500m mark in the BMC final was the fastest of the BMC year and demonstrated how far the 3:33 man has come in making himself a true world class 800m/1500m runner. It was at the shorter distance that Elliot excelled clocking 1:43.63 indoors and 1:44.05 outdoors with a total of eight sub 1:45s and 17 times inside 1:45.6. He ended the year ranked 4th in the world over 800m.

 

Young athlete of the year – Keely Hodgkinson.

Extraordinarily, the BMC U20 athlete of the year is an Olympic Silver Medallist and the current World Number 1. The 1:55.88 run in Tokyo was a British record and represented a 5.28 second improvement on 2020. As well as Olympic silver Keely won the European Indoor championship and the Diamond league final. Keely started her outdoor season with a 53.73 400m personal best at Trafford in May with the BMC staging 400m races for the first time.

Young Athlete of the year Male – Kane Elliott.

Kane’s 3:40.65 run at the Sport City Grand Prix broke the BMC U20 record and was a six second improvement on the then PB he set in the same meeting in 2019. Kane went on to take 4th place in the European U20 championship. At 3000m Kane ran 8:14.73 in the BMC race at Linwood to rank 4th for the event in the UK.

Lifetime Services to Coaching Award 2021 -Trevor Painter

Trevor, a former 400m athlete, has been coaching for over 20 years. He is a very competitive person, steeped in rugby league, has taken numerous athletes to international and nation success.

Trevor coached Jenny Meadows (1.57.93) to global medals indoors and outdoors.

In the World Championships 2009 she won 800m and relay Bronze Medals.

The highlight of 2021 is that ably assisted by Jenny, Trevor guided Keely Hodgkinson to a well deserved Silver Medal in the Tokyo Olympics with a new British Record of 1.55.88 for the 800m.

Throughout his career Trevor has encouraged his athletes to compete in BMC races as a springboard to championship success

Coach of the Year 2021 – Phil Kissi

Phil Kissi worked with his friend and mentor Frank Horwill for many years. Following the death of Frank in 2012 he branched out, coaching a number of talented young athletes including Katy-Ann McDonald (800 2.1.67 2021).

He uses  the BMC races as a springboard to the English Schools and championships  where many have  won medals leading to international representation

2021 has been Phil’s most successful year with the marathon. He coached Steff Davis (2.27.16) to the Olympic Games and Rose Harvey( 2.29.45 ) to third in the UK rankings.

Phil is a hard-working coach looking after the athletes in his charge with care and attention.

Frank Horwill award for services to the BMC – NORRIE HAY


The Frank Horwill award is given to people who have made an outstanding contribution to the BMC. Norrie Hay runs the hugely popular BMC race series in Scotland satisfying a demand for races in the country. So popular are the meetings that they generally sell out within a day of being opened for entries. Not only do they give a pathway for Scottish middle-distance runners to progress, but they also provide top glass racing, notably from Laura Muir, who’s 14:49.12 5000m and 8:37.21 3000m are both BMC records.