Birchfield Harriers - The UK’s Premier Athletics Club

Birchfield Harriers is the home of the UK’s premier athletics club. The club was initially created through a group of likeminded cross country runners dissatisfied through a faulty trial, ultimately taking the name Birchfield Harriers from the Birmingham district in which they were based.

Since being founded in 1877, Birchfield Harries has enjoyed supporting and shaping talented athletes, seen in our representation in the summer Olympics every year bar one since 1908.

Based at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham, we offer not only this magnificent stadium for training, but also access to our indoor facility found at the High Performance Centre. Here, you can train for a range of events not limited to long jump, triple jump, high jump, shot putt, and pole vault.

Join us for quality coaching on Tuesday and Thursday club nights. We also offer coaching through our Academy program on Saturday mornings geared for young athletes.

What sports do we have on offer?

We are proud to offer many sports and disciplines for our Athletes. The result of this is we have now over a dozen competing teams in a wide range of competitions. Our disciplines include track and field, cross country, race walking, and road running, for young athletes all the way to our senior team.

Please find below more details for some of our disciplines.

• Cross Country: The rich and strong tradition of cross country runs throughout the history of Birchfield Harriers. We are proud to have teams in all the Midlands leagues from regional races all the way up to a national level. All ages from under 11 to Masters are supported in our club.
• Race Walking: Whether you are a newcomer, beginner, or an athlete from another discipline, we welcome all into the sport of race walking. Join us to meet a friendly group of individuals, either competing solo or in teams at any competition level.
• Road Running: Our popular discipline welcomes everyone from the young to the “old” over a variety of distances, the shortest being five kilometres up to marathon distances. However, don’t let this put you off as we also welcome fun runners just looking to improve rather than race.

Membership details

Birchfield Harries is in inclusive club and wants to welcome all members regardless of age and disciplines. Our club nights are on Tuesday and Thursday, and you can find the exact meeting time on the relevant discipline pages.

Young athletes are welcome to join our introduction to athletics on Saturday mornings. After progressing to the development squad, they will be assigned a coach to join as a full member.

As we rely on memberships and donations to keep the club running, we want to make sure we offer many benefits for you in return. Please find below the benefits of becoming a Birchfield Harriers club member.

Benefits:

• Exclusive use of the track & field, the external throwing area, and the Clubroom on club nights
• Use of the free-weights room
• Access to three physiotherapy rooms
• Access to the Indoor High Performance Center
• Advice and training from some of the UK’s top coaches
• Training groups from beginners to internationals
• The right to wear the club vest and call yourself a Birchfield Harrier

Information regarding memberships

In this section you can find all the details about the memberships. Membership fees are due annually and must be paid on or before the 31st of March of each year. This falls in line with the membership year running from the 1st of April to the 31st of March.

You are able to enjoy the benefits of the Birchfield Harriers club on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 5.00pm until 9.30pm. The club room also operates between these times, where refreshments are available from the bar and café. They both provide hot and cold meals as well as beverages.

The Birmingham Indoor High Performance Centre is based at the Stadium and the club has generous usage on club nights.

Our Sponsors

As we rely on no support from the Governing body of Athletics, we rely solely on membership fees and sponsors to keep the club running. Our sponsors are vital for the running and future of our club. We thank our long partnerships with nike.com and ldc.co.uk and appreciate their support in the past.

Most recently we want to give a huge welcome to our newest sponsor MyBettingSite.uk. MyBettingSite.uk is a sports betting comparison site, used to find the best sports betting sites in the UK. Whether you are looking for something specific in the world of sports betting such as cricket, MyBettingSite.uk has you covered. On their website you can compare all the top sports betting sites, easily finding information on bonuses, odds, markets available, whether they offer live streaming, and much more. Hailing their reviews as unbiased, detailed, and honest, you can have peace of mind when using their site. Speaking of cricket, if you are a big cricket fan and live close to us, you should think about joining our cricket club.

If you are in the position to become a sponsor and work with us, there are a range of options available. Whether you would like to support and individual athlete or on a larger scale, sponsor a development programme, we would be happy to discuss the possibilities of how you can be involved with Birchfield Harriers.

Olympic Representation

Our Olympic heritage is a huge source of pride for us, where we have the delight to help many athletes achieve their ‘Olympic dreams’. Over the last century, we have supported 116 athletes reach their dream goal, where they have been selected for over 153 events at the Olympic games. 1908 was when the first medals were won, with the Sydney and Athens games being tied for the most medals won, standing at 5 each.

Between our podium athletes, they have won 31 medals broken down into 12 Bronze, 14 Silver, and 5 Gold. We are incredibly proud of all our athletes and delighted to claim the titles of the UK’s Premier Athletics Club.