Club honoured: England Athletics National Club of the Year 2025

Having been voted the London Region Club of the year, along with the 6 other regional winners, the club went forward to the National Awards in Birmingham, where we were honoured to be announced as the National Club of the Year for 2025.

This is a great honour for the club and a recognition of the fantastic hard work done by so many club officials, coaches, team managers and the athletes.

Club Secretary David Hollingworth collected the award on behalf of the club and explained what makes the club great — in particular the friendly and supportive environment, our fantastic team spirit, the volunteering "can do" culture and the dedication of all our volunteers and athletes. He also mentioned the growth and development of our Young Athletes teams as the result of a strategy developed by Coach/Team Manager Joe Everitt and others a few years ago.

From R to L: Paul Franklin, Keith Newton, Joe Everitt, Christine & David Hollingworth, Paul Cheal, Simon Smith. With L to R behind: Nina Franklin, Karen Higgs-Smith

Coach and Team Manager Paul Cheal talked about the 50 or 60 young athlete coaches/helpers who are essential to our Wasps programme and how that started as part of our effort to keep going during Covid.

L to R: Paul Cheal, Joe Everitt, David Hollingworth, Keith Newton, Nina & Paul Franklin

Also there alongside David, Joe and Paul to help collect the award were Volunteer Coordinator Nina Franklin, her husband Paul Franklin (U20/U17 sprints coach) and NAL Women's Team Manager Keith Newton. Home Fixtures Organiser and Team Manager Karen Higgs-Smith and her husband Simon Smith (newly qualified coach) were also present on the evening, but sadly had to leave for home just before the award was presented.

Karen Higgs-Smith, Nina & Paul Franklin, Simon Smith