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 to 1977 [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 administrator and former sports presenter and athletics athlete, who specialised in the heptathlon.
Perry Barr is a suburban area in north Birmingham, in the county of the West Midlands, 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 between 2001 and 2024 was Labour's Khalid Mahmood. The MP as of July 2024 is Ayoub Khan, who ran as an Independent.
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 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 is still 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.
Kelly Jade Sotherton is a British former heptathlete, long jumper and relay runner. In the heptathlon she was the bronze medallist at the 2004 Summer Olympics and, following the disqualification of two other athletes, also at the 2008 Summer Olympics, as well as being part of the bronze medal-winning team in the Women's 4x400m relay at the 2008 Summer Olympics. As such she is one of only five women to win multiple medals in Olympic heptathlon. She also won a bronze at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics. Representing England, Sotherton is a one-time Commonwealth Games champion, as the heptathlon gold medallist at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.
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 British 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 an athletics stadium in Perry Barr, Birmingham, United Kingdom. It is the largest athletics stadium in the United Kingdom. The stadium has four stands with a total seated capacity of 18,000. The stadium site has four buildings which include the Gymnastics and Martial Arts Centre (GMAC), High Performance Centre, East Stand and newly built West Stand. Original construction began in 1975, and the stadium opened in 1976. It is owned and operated by Birmingham City Council.
Audrey Kathleen Kilner Brown MBE was a British athlete who mainly competed in the 100 metres.
Peter Frank Radford is a former British sprinter, 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 and Derek Redmond on the Channel 4 programme Come Dine with Me prior to her Olympics competition, and won the show.
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 was a British 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.