ADMF Athlete Reports – 2024

This year, the Arthur Dagger Memorial Fund (ADMF) are proud to have supported 7 young athletes in their pursuit of running and track and ﬁeld. We awarded grants from £50 to £300 to support everything from purchase of spikes and specialist training supplies to physiotherapy sessions and travel to competitions.

Below are reports written by some of our ADMF athletes detailing their successes this season, future plans, and how the ADMF has helped them. Enjoy reading about our future Olympians!

Owen Garrett

Owen is an U17M discus thrower. He has had an awesome season, below are some of his achievements for the 2024 season.

Represented Great Britain & NI – U18 European Championships, Banská Bystrica, Slovakia
Represented Wales – U18 Shane Pickering Pathway International, Loughborough
English Schools – 2nd Place, Birmingham (Selected for England Schools for the schools International but was unable to attend due to U18 European Championships)
South West Schools Championships – 1stPlace, Exeter
English National Championships – 1st Place, Birmingham
Welsh Championships – 1st Place, Swansea
South West Schools – 1st Place, Exeter
Avon County Championships – 1st Place, Yate
UK School Games – 1st Place, Loughborough
Avon Schools Championships – Championship Best Performance
South West Schools Championships – Championship Best Performance
Avon Track & Field League – League Record
Avon County Championships – Championship Best Performance

Owen has also broken the Yate & District AC Discus club records for U17M, U20M & Senior Men, whilst still being only 16!

Ben Collins

I have to say a massive thank you to everyone in the ADMF. The grant has allowed me buy new kit and treatment in preparation for a tough cross country season.

My hopes are to ﬁnish in the top 5 in the Gwent League this year and ﬁnish in the top 50 in Nationals and English Schools (if I choose to compete).

The ADMF grant has allowed me to fund part of my athletics journey.

Eleanor McIntosh

I was absolutely delighted to have been selected by the Great Western Runners for a very generous grant from the Arthur Dagger Memorial Fund, thank you. Being chosen to receive your support has given me a huge conﬁdence boost for my current and future goals and has made real ﬁnancial difference to my training.

Thanks to this grant I have been able to buy sprint related competition gear including some fantastic sprint spikes. While wearing them I have accomplished a goal that I thought wasn’t possible this season by representing England U20 in the 4x400m relay at the home countries games in late August. The team created a new U20W 4x400m national record which was very exciting!

This summer I have also competed in the Avon County Championships where I broke the county U20W 400m record by 2 1/2 seconds, won the SW schools U20W 400m while competing for Avon and came 5th in the English schools ﬁnals.

I then competed in the British championships U20W 400m, reaching the ﬁnals and getting a personal best time of 55.00 seconds which has meant that I have ﬁnished the season 8th in the UK as a ﬁrst year U20.

I am planning a hard winter of training and intend to compete indoors as part of the training. I ﬁnished last year’s indoor season as the Welsh 400m U20W champion and intend to defend it this season and hopefully compete in the indoor British championships as well.

Without your kind ﬁnancial support it would have been harder to access some of the necessary training and equipment to allow me to ﬂourish during my competitive seasons and also to allow me to focus more on what truly matters to me, which is my performance and growth in athletics.

A grant from the Arthur Dagger Memorial Fund has not only helped me personally but has also inspired me to give back to the community and to support others in their athletic pursuits. I train once a week in a CrossFit gym and have become inspired to take a CrossFit training course so I can give back to a community that has supported me.

Thank you again for your generous support, it really has made a huge difference and I am very grateful.