Emily Newnham hopes to continue winning form at British Champs

The European U23 champion heads to Birmingham as the top-ranked 400m hurdler in the women’s event

As the Novuna UK Athletics Championships in Birmingham approach this weekend (August 2-3), one name generating plenty of excitement is Emily Newnham. The 21-year-old heads into the 400m hurdles riding a wave of momentum, fresh off a championship-record-breaking gold at the European U23 Championships, where she clocked 54.08 — placing her fourth on the UK all-time list.

On top of that, she also walked away from Bergen with a second gold medal as part of the victorious 4x400m relay team.

After a standout season, Newnham is now preparing to test herself once again — this time against the best in the country.

“I think I’m just excited, to be honest,” Newnham says. “British Champs is another exciting opportunity to go out there and experience that level of expectation on myself.”

This year, Newnham arrives at the British Championships with a new kind of opportunity — one she hasn’t had at the event before: not just to compete, but to lead.

“There’s not many competition environments that you’ll get in the senior level where you’ll be favourite,” she says. “So it’s important to experience what it’s like to have that expectation.”

Newnham enters the 400m hurdles as the fastest woman on paper and while she jokes about the pressure that comes with “bib colours” (“I just want a normal coloured bib at this point!”), she’s relishing the challenge — particularly the prospect of facing reigning British champion Lina Nielsen.

“I haven’t raced Lina since two years ago at the British Champs when I came third. I think I ran like 57.13,” she says. “So hopefully it’ll be a bit more of a tighter race.”

The ultimate goal, of course, is to confirm her place at the World Championships in Tokyo. With the qualifying time already secured, a top-two finish this weekend would seal her first-ever senior World Championships appearance.

Between the British Championships and Tokyo, the focus will shift to sustaining momentum.

“I’d like to do another 400 somewhere. I need to get a 200 time down too. I feel like I haven’t trained in forever,” she says. “Hopefully everything goes well at British Champs and I’ll get my Tokyo selection done. Then eyes will be on Tokyo and just seeing how far I can get there.”

The path to this point…