The 2026 British Individual Championships got underway today at Wednesfield with 3 Open Qualifying Rounds plus the Under 16 Girls & Under 16 Open Championships were decided
The Open Qualifiers started the day’s action with Frank White (Astley & Tyldesley), Luca Woodhouse (Great Blakenham), Lewis Brinkhoff (Great Blakjenham), Joe Gillespie (Southampton), Ryan Jones (Newport), Scott Millward (Birmingham), Chris Timms (Birmingham), Lewis Foxley (Birmingham), Craig Marchant (Great Blakenham) and Josh Brooke (Great Blakenham) booking their places in the Semi-Finals
Open Qualifier 2 saw Tom Colling (Southampton), James Porter (Ipswich), Owen Johnson (Horspath), Feroze Langoo (Poole), Jamie Randall (Poole), Ben Mould (Birmingham), Mark Boaler (Horspath), Jack Herbert (Ipswich), Noah Woodhouse (Great Blakenham) and Paul Heard (Birmingham) qualify for the Semi-Finals
Open Qualifier 3 saw Mark Carmichael (Horspath), Ashley Hill (Ipswich), Corey Burt (Wednesfield), Oliver Saunders (Poole), Luke Draisey (Birmingham), Noah Lyon (Hull), Richard Felgett (Ipswich), Ben Clarke (Ipswich) and Oliver Banyard (Sheffield) qualify for the Semi-Finals.
Teddy Curtis (Poole) and Luke Whitehead (Leicester) also qualified for the Semi-Finals following a run-off between the riders who finished in 11th place in the qualifying rounds whilst Sam Dart (Exeter) will be the 1st reserve in the 1st Semi-Final
Josh Hill (East Park) won the run-off between the 12th placed riders so he will be the 1st reserve in Semi-Final 2. Andy Yard (Newport) was 2nd in the run-off with Sam Stansfield (Edinburgh) 3rd they will be the 2nd reserves in the 1st and 2nd Semi-Finals respectively
The Under 16 Girls was the first British Championship to be decided and this saw Kesgrave’s Amberley Gant take the title with a faultless maximum. Sheffield’s Lacey Ackroyd finished as runner-up, dropping her only point to Gant in heat 5. Third place went to Esmae Lewis (Newport with 18 points, dropping her only points to the top 2
Amberley Gant (Kesgrave) 20, Lacey Ackroyd (Sheffield) 19, Esmae Lewis (Newport) 18, Yoanna Gilpin (Coventry) 16, Lola Martin (Hethersett) 16, Nyla Aris (Wednesfield) 14, Ava Chapman (Poole) 14, Tallulah Curtis (Poole) 14, Millie Shear (Poole) 13, Maisy Baker (Ipswich) 11, Tilly Shear (Poole) 10, Freya Curran’s (Exeter) 9
Referee: Tim Balding (Dorset)
The Under 16 Open Championship needed a run-off to decide the top 2 placings after Poole’s Jamie Randall and Sheffield’s Oliver Banyard tied on 19 points. Randall dropped his only point to Banyard when they met in heat 20 whilst Banyard dropped his only point to Frank White in heat 12. Randall avenged his defeat by Banyard in heat 20 by winning the run-off with White taking 3rd
Jamie Randall (Poole) 19*, Oliver Banyard (Sheffield) 19*, Frank White (Astley & Tyldesley) 18, Teddy Curtis (Poole) 17, Charleie Spurgeon (Kesgrave) 15, Isaac Powling (Kesgrave) 15, Kalem Martin (Newport) 14, Joe Gillespie (Southampton) 14, Harry Gibson (Hull) 12, Connor Jarrett (Kesgrave) 10, Harry Ridley (Hellingly) 10, Sam Comben (Southampton) 9, Carson East (Coventry) 9, Jacob Jewkes (Wednesfield) 7, Theo Case (Kesgrave) 6, Alex Rudge (Edinburgh) 5
Referee: David Makepeace (Hampshire
Day 2 Preview
Day 2 at Wednesfield should have started with a pre-qualifying round at 9am for the Under 18 Open Championship but this has been cancelled as 1 rider has withdrawn. The action will start at 10am with the Women’s Open Pre-Qualifying round and out of the riders who rode in last year’s final at Southampton 13 of them have entered this year. There are 5 previous champions entered, namely the reigning Women’s World and British Champion Emily Burgess (Astley & Tyldesley), who also won the title in 2021 & 2022, Maddie Saunders (Southampton), winner in 2023 & 2024, Lucy Whitehead (Leicester) who was the first Women’s Champion in 2006 and was successful in 2009, Charlie-Jane Herbert (Ipswich) who was victorious in 2014 and Rachel Lammin (Horspath) who was the 2010 champion under her maiden name Edge. The other finalists from last year are Rebekah Humphries (Birmingham), Elizabeth Rigley (Sheffield), Lacey Ackroyd (Sheffield), the reigning Under 16 Girls champion Amberley Gant (Kesgrave), the reigning Under 16 Girls World Champion Lily Parr (Ipswhch), Laura Watson (Sheffield) and Lexie Curtis (Poole). Also entered are Ava Chapman (Poole), Lola Martin (Hethersett), Ella Case (Kesgrave), Ellie George (Newport), Esmae Lewis (Newport) and Nyla Aris (Wednesfield). Riders for this are requested to be at the track by 9.30am to sign in.
The 2 Open Semi-Finals will follow at 11.30am and 11.30pm respectively and the line-ups for these are as follows:
Semi-Final 1
1 Josh Brooke
2 Ashley Hill
3 Luke Draisey
4 Tom Colling
5 Owen Johnson
6 Jamie Randall
7 Frank White
8 Paul Heard
9 Feroze Langoo
10 Oliver Saunders
11 Noah Lyon
12 Teddy Curtis
13 Noah Woodhouse
14 Scott Millward
15 Mark Carmichael
16 Luke Whitehead
Semi-Final 2
1 Jack Herbert
2 Mark Boaler
3 Chris Timms
4 Ben Mould
5 Ryan Jones
6 Craig Marchant
7 Richard Felgett
8 Michael Baldock
9 Lewis Foxley
10 Joe Gillespie
11 Oliver Banyard
12 Luca Woodhouse
13 Corey Burt
14 Ben Clarke
15 James Porter
16 Lewis Brinkhoff
The inaugural Under 18 Girls British Championship will take place at 3pm and the draw for this is below:
1 Lacey Ackroyd (Sheffield)
2 Maisy Baker (Ipswich)
3 Ava Chapman (Poole)
4 Amberley Gant (Kesgrave)
5 Lola Martin (Hethersett)
6 Ella Case (Kesgrave)
7 Millie Shear (Poole)
8 Ellie George (Newport)
9 Esmae Lewis (Newport)
This will run in conjunction with the Women’s Over 30’s Championship and last year’s top 3 Laura Watson (Sheffield), Lucy Whitehead (Leicester), and Rachel Lammin (Horspath) are all entered again this year and they will be joined by Ipswich’s Charlie-Jane Herbert
The Over 50’s Championship will follow at 5pm and 4 of the riders who rode in last year’s event at Southampton are entered this year, namely Steve Paver (Exeter), the reigning Over 50’s World Champion Mark Winwood (Birmingham), Mark Whitehead (Leicester and the reigning Over 50’s British Champion Craig Marchant (Great Blakenham). They are joined by Will Banyard (Sheffield), Dave Dart (Exeter), Pete Young (Poole) Martyn Hollebao (Hellingly) and Lee Galley (Newport)
Galley and Paver are also in the Over 60’s British Championship which is due to start at 6pm where they will be joined by Chris Ward (Horspath), Bob Prince (East Park), Paul Timms (Birmingham), Andy Collett (Exeter) and Dave Murphy (Exeter). Whoever finishes ahead out of Prince and Collett will be crowned the inaugural British Over 70’s Individual Champion
