Birchfield Harriers is an athletics club, founded in 1877. Its home is at Birmingham's Alexander Stadium, England.
As well as welcoming recreational runners they cater for all levels of experience up to and including Olympic athletes whether able-bodied or wheelchair-using athletes.
The Club's motto is Fleet and Free.
The Harriers were named after the Birchfield district of Birmingham. [1] Their previous home (from 1929-77 [1] ), at nearby Perry Barr, was Alexander Sports Ground. [1] It still carries their badge, a running stag, rendered in this case in Art Deco style, carved in 1929 and attributed to William Bloye. [2] Both venues were named for members of the Alexander family, who were prominent members of the club. [1]
Tom McCook, a former athlete and club chairman, was the club's President from 2001 until standing down at the end of 2013. [3]
Dame Denise Rosemarie Lewis is a British sports presenter and former track and field athlete, who specialised in the heptathlon. She won the gold medal in the heptathlon at the 2000 Sydney Olympics, was twice Commonwealth Games champion, was the 1998 European Champion and won World Championships silver medals in 1997 and 1999. She was the first European to win the Olympic heptathlon, though Europeans, including Briton Mary Peters, had won the Olympic pentathlon precursor event.
Perry Barr is a suburban area in north Birmingham, England. It is also the name of a council constituency, managed by its own district committee. Birmingham Perry Barr is also a parliamentary constituency; its Member of Parliament is Khalid Mahmood.
Sally Jane Janet Gunnell is a British former track and field athlete, active between 1984 and 1997, who won the 1992 Olympic gold medal in the 400 metres hurdles. During a golden 24-month period between 1992 and 1994, Gunnell won every international event open to her, claiming Olympic Games, World Championship, European Championship, Commonwealth Games, Goodwill Games, IAAF World Cup and European Cup golds in the event, and breaking the British, European and World records in it. She is the only female British athlete to have won all four 'majors'; Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth titles, and was the first female 400 metres hurdler in history to win the Olympic and World titles and break the world record. Her former world record time of 52.74 secs in 1993, still ranks in the world all-time top ten and is the current British record. She was named World and European Female Athlete of the Year in 1993, and was made an MBE in 1993 and an OBE in 1998.
Mark Anthony Lewis-Francis, MBE is a retired British track and field athlete, specifically a sprinter, who specialised in the 100 metres and was an accomplished regular of GB 4 x 100m relay. A renowned junior, his greatest sporting achievement at senior level has been to anchor the Great Britain and Northern Ireland 4 x 100 metres relay team to a gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Individually, Lewis-Francis has won the silver medal in the 100 m at the 2010 European Athletics Championships and silver medal in the 2010 Commonwealth Games, Men's 100m final and numerous indoor medals.
Sport has always been important in Birmingham, England, from the hundreds of diverse grass-roots sports clubs to internationally famous teams, associations and venues.
Ashia Hansen, is a retired British triple jumper. Fourth in the 1996 Olympic final, she broke the world indoor record when winning the 1998 European Indoor title, and went on to win gold medals at the World Indoor Championships in 1999 and 2003, at the Commonwealth Games in 1998 and 2002, and at the 2002 European Championships. Her British records of 15.15 metres and 15.16 metres, still stand.
Arthur James Robertson was a Scottish runner who competed at the 1908 Summer Olympics in London. He won the gold medal in the 3-mile team race and a silver in the steeplechase.
Witton Cemetery, which opened in Witton in 1863 as Birmingham City Cemetery, is the largest cemetery in Birmingham, England. Covering an area of 103 acres (0.42 km2), it once had three chapels; however, two of these were demolished in 1980. The cemetery would perform up to 20 burials a day; however, it was declared "full to capacity" in December 2013, allowing burials only in existing family plots, or of babies or cremated remains. Extra capacity was therefore provided at the nearby New Hall Cemetery. The cemetery office was opened in 1999.
Alexander Stadium is a track and field athletics stadium in Perry Park, Birmingham, England. It hosted the athletics and opening/closing ceremonies of the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Other events held there include the annual British Grand Prix between 2011 and 2019 and in 2022, the Amateur Athletics Association Championships, 1998 Disability World Athletics Championships, and English Schools' Athletics Championships. The Stadium will also host the Midlands Hurricanes rugby league team from 2023 onwards.
Audrey Kathleen Kilner Brown MBE was a British athlete who mainly competed in the 100 metres.
Peter Frank Radford is a former British athlete, who competed at 100 and 200 metres, broke world records, and won Olympic medals, despite having been seriously ill as a child due to a hole in his kidney.
Perry Barr Stadium (also known as Perry Barr Greyhound Stadium and previously as Alexander Sports Ground(s)) is a greyhound racing and motorcycle speedway stadium on Aldridge Road in Perry Barr, Birmingham, England. The track is operated by the Arena Racing Company (ARC), who lease it from owners the National Asset Management Agency. Racing takes place every Saturday evening, in addition to their four ARC fixtures.
Gladys Anne Lunn was an English track and field athlete from Birmingham, England who competed in the 1934 British Empire Games in the 1938 British Empire Games.
Louise Victoria Hazel is an English track and field athlete from March, Cambridgeshire, who specialises in the multi-event heptathlon. She has competed in four major international championships. The first was in 2006 when she came 17th at the European Championships and the second was three years later when she finished 14th at the World Championships. During 2009 she was ranked 2nd best in the country and 9th best of all time. In the 2010 Commonwealth Games she won the gold medal for the England team, with a personal best of 6156 points. At the 2011 Mehrkampf-Meeting Ratingen she scored 6166 points but this included wind-assisted performances and she also competed at the 2012 Summer Olympics. In July 2012 she appeared with Tasha Danvers, Mark Foster, Derek Redmond on the Channel 4 programme Come Dine with Me prior to her Olympics competition, and won the show.
Amy Melissa Harris-Willock is an English long jumper of Antiguan descent competing as Amy Harris, and a former titleholder of the pageant Miss Caribbean UK.
The Birchfield Ladbroke Stadium, also known as the old Perry Barr Greyhound Stadium or Alexander Sports Stadium was a former greyhound racing and Motorcycle speedway stadium in Birchfield in the north of Birmingham, England.
Beryl Randle is a former race walker and an athletics administrator. She raced for Birchfield Harriers.
Dorothy Nelson Neal OBE (1908–1982) was influential in the early days of women's athletics in Great Britain.
William Snook was an English running champion, whose life was mired in controversy and ended in poverty.
The 1884 AAA Championships was an outdoor track and field competition organised by the Amateur Athletic Association (AAA), held on Saturday 21 June at Aston Lower Grounds, Birmingham, England.