WEEKEND PREVIEW: British Indoor Championships Day 1
The British Indoor Championships for 2024 get underway tomorrow (Saturday January 4th 2025) at Sports Connexion, Ryton On Dunsmore. The action gets underway at 10am with the Junior Individual Final and of the 13 riders entered 8 of those were in last year’s event. They are the defending champion of this event and current World Junior Champion Kenzie Bennett (Poole), runner up and current outdoor champion Ryker Jolly (Kesgrave) and Noah Woodhouse (Kesgrave). The other riders from last year who are entered again are Finley Myall (Ipswich), Oliver Saunders (Poole), the current European Junior Champion Leon Penketh (Southampton), Harvey Yard (Newport) and Edinburgh’s Sam Stansfield who represented Sheffield last year. The line-up is completed by Mason martin (Great Blakenham), Jude Wilcockson (Coventry), Shaun Kell (Ipswich), Luca Woodhouse (Kesgrave) and Torsten Jolly (Kesgrave)
The Under 14 Individual Championship follows at 11.15am and of the 11 riders entered 7 of those were in last year’s event. They are James Randall (Poole), Lola Martin (Hethersett), Theo Case (Kesgrave), Charlie Spurgeon (Kesgrave), Connor Jarrett (Kesgrave), Isaac Powling (Kesgrave) and Caiden Rawlings (Kesgrave). The line-up is completed by Oscar Myall (Ipswich), the current Under 12 outdoor champion Roman Boaler (Horspath) and Sam Comben (Southampton),
The Open Team Championship has 2 semi-finals of 5 teams each and the first one at 12.30 sees Coventry come up against 4 teams who have won this event on 9 occasions between them, namely Great Blakenham, Poole, Birmingham and Ipswich. Poole’s only success came in the 1988 event whilst Great Blakenham and Birmingham have been victorious on 2 occasions each, Great Blakenham winning in 1995 and 2002 whilst Birmingham were victors in 2015 and 2018. Ipswich have won each of the last 4 stagings of this event in 2019, 2021, 2022 and 2023
The 2nd semi-final follows at 1.45 and Sheffield, Kesgarve and Newport come up against Leicester and Horspath with the latter 2 teams having been victorious on 12 occasions. Leicester’s victories were in 1989, 1991, 1992 & 1993 whilst Horspath’s 8 wins were in the period between 2004 and 2013 inclusive. The only 2 years in this period where Horspath were not victorious were in 2006 and 2008.
The Under 16 Individual Championship follows at 3pm with 7 of the riders in last year’s event entered on this occasion. They are the current outdoor champion Ryker Jolly (Kesgrave), Harvey Yard (Newport), outdoor number 3 Luca Woodhouse (Kesgrave) , Finley Myall (Ipswich), James Randsll (Poole), Charlie Spurgeon (Kesgrave) and the current outdoor Under 16 Girls champion Lily Parr (Kesgrave). Also entered are Oscar Myall (Ipswich), Jude Wilcockson (Coventry), Dylan Geer (Hellingly), Isaac Powling (Kesgrave), outdoor runner-up Shaun Kell (Ipswich) and Connor Jarrett (Kesgrave)
The Open Team Championship Final rounds off the day’s action at 4.15 and will feature the top 2 scoring teams from the semi-finals