Momentum Sports Academy Silver Athletes

Athlete and Group Coach

Richard Holt

Primarily a coach these days (he's Head Coach for both Momentum Sports and Kingston and Poly AC, but still loving to compete, Richard has coached athletes in this group to British age group and British University (BUCS) titles and representative honours on regional, national and international levels, including European Junior Championships.

Richard was an English Schools Champion at 400m before going on to compete for Surrey, Sheffield University, the North and British Universities Teams at 400m hurdles as well as many years with the successful Blackheath and Bromley club. His biggest achievement was reaching the final of the GB World Championships Trials in 1995, whilst coaching himself and a group in Sheffield. Nowadays, he still competes and is four times British Champion at 400m hurdles in Masters age groups, ranking as high as 7th in the World in 2012. 2018 saw him compete at the World Master Championships in Malaga, narrowly missing out on a place in the final.

The Athletes

Sam Ige

Sam is sprinter, specialising in the shorter sprints. Having made a big jump in performance in 2017, dropping his 100m and 200m times to 10.62 and 21.41 respectively that year, the last couple of seasons he has been going for more consistency, which indicates another breakthrough season could be soon. In 2022 he won silver in the 200m at the Surrey County Championships and consistently ran 100m times between 10.6 and 10.9 seconds, this suggests 2023 will see him go faster than he's ever gone before!

Sam also attended Swansea University, where he competed at BUCS over 60m, 100m and 200m, as well as U23 National Championships. Now in the senior ranks, he competes at the British Championships, both indoor and outdoor, on a regular basis.

Sam is also a key member of the Kestrels Club coaching team, having been coaching Kestrels since 2016.

Ruben Hedman

Ruben is a 110m hurdler who joined Momentum Sports after the 2022 season. He has had a prolific junior career so far, highlights being representing Great Britain Juniors at the Manchester International in 2021, taking silver at the 2021 English Schools Championships, winning bronze at the South of England 2021 and 2022 Championships, bronze in the U17 England indoor Championships in 2020 and finishing 5th at the U20 England National Championships in 2022 all in the 110m hurdles. He is also a talented 60m indoor sprinter, taking 4th at the u20 England Indoor Championships and 2nd in the Southerns in 2022. He is looking forward to continuing his success into the 2023 season.

Kira Holt

Kira was ranked 16th in the UK at 80mh as a first year U17 and has won multiple Surrey Schools and Surrey County titles. She has represented Surrey at the English Schools three times and was also a member of the Surrey U17W 4x100m team that came third in the final in 2019. As a first year U17 Kira also competed at the South of England championships, where she came fourth, and the national championships where she qualified for the final and came seventh. She was also a part of the Kingston relay team that qualified to run at the Anniversary Games in 2019 and placed fourth.

In the 2020 indoor season she got bronze in the 60mH at the South of England championships. Although the pandemic disrupted her the rest of her 2020 and 2021 seasons she still took Surrey County Gold, 5th place in the South of England Championships,7th in the England Championships and 7th English Schools Championships in her age group in the 100m hurdles, 2022 saw her pick up two more golds at the Surrey Schools and Surrey County Champs while she lowered her 100m hurdles PB to 14.4. She is looking to go even faster in 2023 and work towards a place on the Junior Great Britain team.

Phoebe Law

Phoebe is a coach with Momentum Sports, jointly coaching the Adult Distance Group and also coaching the Kestrel Club, but, she has also competed in athletics for over 10 years. In this time she has represented Great Britain at a Junior and Senior level and won several national and county titles. Her first successes came at county level where she won multiple medals in cross country, the 1500m and 3000m. This translated to success on the roads where she won the London Mini Marathon for the London Boroughs in 2014 (coming 3rd overall). This form continued into the winter season where she earned her first junior British vest at 17. Since then she has been part of three gold winning teams at the European Cross Country championships, won the senior National and British Cross Country titles in 2018 and finished 4th in the European U23 10000m Championships in 2017. She is looking forward to continuing to help her athletes achieve their goals as well as working to reach her own over the coming years.

Yvette Henry

Yvette is one of the newest members of Momentum Sports academy, she is a top class sprinter with a series of impressive performances to her name. An elite level senior athlete boasting PBs of 11.78 for the 100m, 24.93 for the 200m and 7.60 for the 60m, she has continued this success into the masters ranks. In 2018 she became world champion, winning the V45 100m world title in a blistering 12.55 . 12.55 was not only a gold medal winning performance but also ranks her number 1 'all time' in Britain in the V45 age group. More recently she competed in the 2022 World Masters Championships where she took 3rd in the 100m and 5th in the 200m. As well as international success, she has won numerous county and regional medals as well as the British V40 title in 2018. We are thrilled to have her joining the group and excited to see what she can do at the World Indoor Masters and European Outdoor Masters Championships in 2023!

Tom White

Tom started athletics back in 2012 at the young age of 9, and in that timespan until now, he has grown to be a key member of the Kingston and Poly team, competing every year possible for K&P in the YDL. Now, as an older athlete, he is one of the top performers for K&P in the National Athletics League as well as representing his university at the indoor and outdoor BUCs championships.

2019 was a breakthrough year for Tom. He became the Middlesex School U17 100m champion, which allowed him to compete for Middlesex at English School individually at the 100m and as part of the Middlesex 4x100m U17 relay team.

Tom also lowered his sprint PBs for 100m and 200m to 10.97 and 22.92 respectively, which led to him being ranked 14th in the country for U17 100m. Despite the pandemic restricting the number of competitions available in 2020 and 2021, Tom continued to improve and 2022 was another fantastic year for him which saw him lower both his 100m and 200m PBs to 10.8 and 21.93 and finish 5th in the 100m and 7th in the 200m at the Welsh Senior Championships. He is aiming to break those PBs again next summer after a hard winter of training.

Jasmine Mitchell

Jasmine has been involved in athletics for as long as she can remember! Starting as an U13 she has competed in a variety of events, from the 60m to cross country, before finding her favourite event, the 400m hurdles. Since then she has flourished, taking multiple medals in the Surrey Schools and Surrey County Championships in both the 400m and 400m hurdles and representing Surrey at the 2015 and 2016 English Schools Championships in the 400m hurdles. She attended Loughborough University and qualified to represent them at the BUCs Championships (which is no easy thing considering the depth and strength of the Loughborough squad) and went on to finish 4th in the 2019 event. 2019 was a breakthrough year for Jas as she set her PB of 62.25 to finish 4th in the U23 England Championships. Since then she has had some excellent championship performances, 5th at the England Championships in 2021, 4th at the South of England Championships in 2022 and 2nd at the Inter Counties Championships in 2022 and we are sure this form shows that 2023 will be the year we see her smash her PB!

Ella Manning

Ella joined Momentum Sports in 2021 in the midst of a successful junior career to focus on the hurdles. Now she is predominantly a hurdles specialist, boasting PBs of 60.3 for the 400m hurdles and 14.42 for the 100m hurdles, but she has also previously competed in both the pentathlon and heptathlon to a high level. She has a medal in at least one event in the Hampshire County Championships every year since 2018. She has also represented Hampshire at the English Schools Championships every year from 2017 to 2022 (apart from 2020 when no championship was held). During the 2020 indoor season she won the South of England U17 60m hurdles and came 2nd at the U17 England Championships. Since joining Momentum Sports she had an excellent 2022 season, finishing 3rd at the U20 indoor South of England Championships in the 60m hurdles and, in the outdoor season finishing 6th at the English Schools and 7th at the U20 England Championships, both in the 100m hurdles. 2023 will see her aim to lower her PBs even further and look to qualify for a junior Great Britain team.

Tom Parry

Tom was ranked 13th in the U17 UK rankings at 100m Hurdles and he represented the Surrey Schools team in the English Schools Athletics Championships from 2006-09. He won the Surrey County Championships, a silver medal at the South of England Championships and ran 13.54 for 100H in 2008. In the 2008 season he peaked in August, reaching the England Athletics U17 100m Hurdles final and winning on his debut in the British League for Kingston.

In 2009 he moved to 400m hurdles and reached the final of the English Schools in the first year in the age group. His senior seasons have been disrupted by persistent injuries, however, despite this he has dropped his 400m hurdles PB to 53.37, medalled at the Welsh Senior Championships, taken several Surrey County medals, represented Surrey multiple times and also competed at the British Athletics Championships,

Scott Evans

Scott is a middle/long distance runner, specialising in the 3000m steeplechase but having an event range from 800m to Cross Country.

Scott competed as a junior in both track and field and cross country, competing at English Schools for both. Now, he is a key member of the Kingston BAL team, boasting personal bests of 1:51.89, 3:53.14 and 9:23.8 for 800m, 1500m and 3000mSC respectively.

Scott is also a keen hockey player, playing for Surbiton Hockey Club.

Matt Atkins

Matt is one of K&P's top male masters distance runners and has been a high points scorer in both track and cross country events since beginning to compete for them in 2016.Since joining Momentum Sports, Matt has reduced his 1500m, 5000m, 10k and 10 mile times down year on year and finished 2022 ranked in the top 90 nationally for his age group in the 10k and 5k. He has also had success at masters championship level, winning the Surrey Masters County Cross Country Championships and also 5000m title in 2016, then, coming back to defend his 5000m title successfully in 2017. 2018 was a purple patch for Matt as he won the British Masters Titles in the 3000m indoors and 1500m outdoors and he also finished 4th at the main Surrey Championships. He also finished the season with a world ranking of 22 in the 3000m and 34 in the 5000m for his age group. In 2019 he also ranked number 9 in the world for the mile in his age group with a time of 4.38 He has already started his 2022 season well, with top 15 finishes in both the Surrey League Races so far and he will look to build on this form throughout the season and into the summer.

Pat Logan

Pat is another part of the sprint contingent here, with his specialist events being the 60m and 100m.

I think it will be safe to say that Pat is a mainstay of British Masters Athletics! Pat has won multiple medals at British Masters Championships, both indoor and outdoors, across the 60m, 100m and 200m events! Pat has also competed and won medals at both the European and World Masters level. This has undoubtedly given Pat fame as a championship runner, with the uncanny ability to produce PBs/SBs in races when it counts the most!

Joely Bytheway

Joely joined Momentum Sports after the 2022 summer season and is working hard towards 2023. Primarily a 400m hurdler, she is also a competitive 100m, 200m and 400m runner, She has won multiple medals at the Devon Country Championships and Cornwall County Schools and represented Cornwall at the English Schools in the 400m hurdles in 2017 and 2018. In 2022 she finished 4th at the U23 English National Championships, dropped her PB to 64.76 and finished the season ranked 12th nationally in the U23 age group.

Tia Garrard

Tia is our youngest academy member, and in her early athletics career has already shown exceptional talent at a range of events. So far, her biggest successes have been in the 800m, long jump and the pentathlon. She finished 2022 ranked 3rd in the country for her age group in the 800m after setting a stunning PB of 2.17.54 which also puts her 22nd all time. She also won County gold, finished 2nd in the South of England Championships and broke the long standing Lily B League 800m record over the distance! In the long jump, her PB of 4.82 ranked her 5th in the country for her age group and she also took County gold. In September, when many have already finished their seasons, she produced what was perhaps one of her most exciting performances yet when she took part in her first pentathlon, She took gold (winning her 3rd county title of the year), posting a score of 2632 points, leaving her ranked 1st in the country for her age group and 14th all time - not bad for a first pentathlon! She is an inspiration for the other athletes to train with, has a fantastic work ethic and is always keen to learn more and develop her skills, Next year she will move up to the U15 category and we are all so excited to see what she can do with more competition to push her.

Group Sports Masseur

Vanessa Hammett

Vanessa was formerly a 62 second 400m hurdler who has been coaching with Momentum Sports for a number of years, leading our Junior Performance Middle Distance group. Back in 2009 she took the London School of Sports Massage's intensive training course and is now a very important part of the Momentum Academy team, as well as continuing to coach many of the younger stars of tomorrow in her group. All athletes in the Silver Academy get free massages with Vanessa on a regular basis.

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