🏅 Lee Valley Athletics Centre is the place to be on Wednesday 12 February for a packed evening of top-class indoor athletics courtesy of the Ayo Falola Dream Mile. Spectating is free!
NEWSFLASH: The 2025 Ayo Falola Dream Mile is a wrap!
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2025 PREVIEW
It’s a big year for athletics with the World Indoor Championships in China in March followed by the 2025 World Athletics Champions which will be held in Tokyo in September. Get in the mood with tonight’s Ayo Falola Dream Mile meeting. A rare opportunity to watch a host of elite athletes up close and personal as they race over various distances including the iconic mile.
AYO FALOLA DREAM MILE – INTRODUCTION
The Ayo Falola Dream Mile meeting (see below for event history) is a unique opportunity for talented juniors to share the stage with internationals at the Lee Valley venue used as a training base by many Team GB athletes.
A packed night of action starts at 6.05pm with racing through until 8.55pm (full timetable below). A series of invitational junior races will take centre stage from 6.30pm-7pm.
The elite action, headlined by the Dream Mile races, starts just after 7pm with a women’s 400m followed by a men’s 400m race. At 7.30pm attention turns to a series of British Milers Club (BMC) races over 800m. Read more about the BMC here. Then all eyes will be on the elite women’s mile race (8.13pm) followed by the men’s elite mile race (8.21pm) followed by the podium mile presentations.
Race start lists and results can be viewed here.
Also on the night DJ Kevin Stewart will be in attendance to keep the atmosphere pumping. On Running will have their own area where athletes and spectators alike can try out their trainers and spikes. And food and drink options will be available for purchase throughout the event.
READ ON for a 2024 review, a 2025 preview, the full race timetable and how you can be there! 👇
2024 RESULTS
CONGRATULATIONS to Joseph Tuffin (pictured below and main picture above, No.81) who won the 2024 men’s Ayo Falola Dream Mile in a track record time of 3:59.24. Tuffin overhauled Tyler Billiard (3:59.33) in the last few metres of a compelling race. Rory Leonard was third in 3:59.55.
Shaikira King (below right) claimed a classy front-running victory in the women’s dream mile in a time of 4:43.22. Only just missing out on the UK U17 record. Oliver Forrest was second in 4:46.55 with Olivia McGhee completing the podium places in a time of 4:47.83. Zoe Doyle set a new British W50 record of 5:09.98.
On a night of track records there was also a world record! Claire Elms raced to a time of 5:30.89 in the women’s elite mile B race. The fastest clocking ever for a mile in the W60 category and an age-grading of 103% for good measure.
The women’s elite 400m race was won in emphatic style by Lina Nielson. A week later she finished second in the Indoor British Championships (behind her sister Laviai) in a PB of 51.95.
Check out the Graham Smith Photography website here for a full gallery of pictures capturing a memorable night of athletics at Lee Valley.
Photos: Graham Smith
2025 ‘ONES TO WATCH’
ELITE MILE RACES
WOMEN’S MILE @ 8.13pm
2023 National Cross Country champion Sarah Astin is one to beat. Astin’s main rival is likely to be Shaikira King who won the race in 2024 in a time just shy of the UK U17 record.
Meanwhile in the Women’s B Race all eyes will be on prodigy Madison Kindler. Kindler is aiming for a sub-5 minute indoor mile after she broke the world age record for a 5k – with a 17:22 clocking – last month.
MEN’S MILE @ 8.21pm
Can three men go sub-4 minutes once again at Lee Valley? Don’t rule it out! The fastest in the field is Callum Elson – with a 3.53 indoor PB – who continues his return from an injury sustained at the World Indoor Championships last year. Elson won a silver medal in the mile at the 2023 World Athletics Road Running Championships. Alex Melloy, a 3.38 1500m athlete, is Elson’s main threat.
ELITE SUPPORTING RACES
WOMEN’S 400m @ 7.05pm
Charlotte Henrich will start as hot favourite after her PB from last season – of 52.39 – which put Henrich in the top-10 of the UK all-time rankings. Henrich is one of the brightest stars on the UK 400m scene. Also taking part are multi-eventer and former European junior medallist Holly Mills and Indienne King who has represented Team GB over 800m
MEN‘S 400m @ 7.10pm
Team GB U20 international Okoh Onyekachukwu – a 400m hurdler – is up against 400m specialist Tommy Owler who has a PB of 47.21 from last season. The stadium record is 47.33. It’s under threat.
BMC Races @ 8.30pm.
The 800m Men’s A race is set to be a burn-up. An impressive field includes athletes from Japan, Kenya and Ireland. The pacemaker has been asked to take the the athletes through 400m in 51 seconds. Meaning a 1.44 winning time is possible.
In the Men’s D race Shaftesbury Barnet’s veteran extraordinaire Kojo Kyereme is targeting the M50 800 World Masters indoor record which stands at 1:59.30. Kyereme ran 2:00.87 earlier this month.
TICKETS, TIMINGS & TRAVEL
🎟️ Spectating: Free entry on the door.
🕒 Timetable of races:
🚊🚗 Travel tips: Travel tips: Car parking is free for all visitors. There are also bus routes and train stations close to the venue. See this ‘Plan your visit‘ guide on the Lee Valley Athletics Centre website.
ABOUT THE AYO FALOLA DREAM MILE
The event is named after the renowned coach and former sprinter Ayo Falola who sadly passed away with cancer in 2015. Tributes and more on Falola’s life can be viewed on the Athletics Weekly website.
Set up in his memory the ethos of the Ayo Falola Dream Mile meeting is to inspire youngsters by enabling them to compete on the same stage as international athletes.
The youngsters take centre stage at the beginning of the evening and stay on to watch the senior races. The idea being it will provide added motivation for them to be involved in the sport. And if they take a different avenue later in life, they will still have received a good grounding to live a healthy lifestyle as well as a boost to their self-esteem.
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