On Sunday 21 December, with the indoor season still very much in its infancy, Honor Oteng produced an early statement by setting a new personal best over 60 metres. Her time of 7.54 seconds places her seventh on the British under-15 all-time rankings, an achievement made even more striking by the fact that she is younger than every athlete ahead of her on the list, at just 13 years of age.
Early-season performances set the tone
Traditionally, the opening weeks of the indoor season are used as a period of assessment and reactivation. Personal bests and eye-catching times are usually reserved for the second half of the winter, as athletes build towards the major championships. This year, however, meetings at Loughborough and Lee Valley have already delivered performances that suggest the script may be different.
Among the seniors, Jody Smith was one of the first to grab attention at Loughborough. By slashing his 60m personal best from 6.74 to 6.52, the 25-year-old produced one of the most dramatic improvements seen at this stage of the season in recent years. Such a leap, particularly in a discipline measured in hundredths, immediately reshaped perceptions of his level and potential.
At the same time, the younger generation has continued to assert itself. In the long jump, Michael Maguire, born in 2010, announced himself with an outstanding indoor best of 7.41 metres. That mark places him among the very best British U17 athletes in history and fits neatly into a broader surge of emerging talent, highlighted in recent months by the rise of Daniel Emegbor.
In the sprints, Celine Obinna-Alo also made headlines by breaking the British U17 60m record at Lee Valley with 7.34, erasing a mark that had stood for almost two decades. It is against this already impressive backdrop that Honor Oteng has now added another notable early-season performance.
7.54 over 60m at 13 years old and seventh all-time
At just 13, Honor Oteng may not yet be a household name, but she is already firmly on the radar of those who follow British sprint development closely. Her indoor opener at Lee Valley resulted in a new 60m personal best of 7.54, improving on a time that had already placed her among the leading athletes in her age group. That performance now elevates her to seventh on the British under-15 all-time list, immediately giving her run historical context.
In doing so, Oteng has climbed several places in a ranking populated by athletes who would later go on to establish themselves at national and even international level — and crucially, athletes who were older at the time they achieved their marks.
Her precocity has been evident for some time. As an under-13, she had already made an impact by recording the second-fastest British performances in history over both 100m and 200m, as well as the fourth-fastest over 60m, behind benchmarks that in some cases had stood for decades. At just 11 years old, she was producing times that placed her statistically alongside much older athletes, even appearing in global under-18 performance lists.
In 2025, her transition into the U15 category was backed up outdoors. She claimed the Essex title over 200 metres in 24.55 and ran 11.81 for 100m at the school championships in Birmingham. That latter performance installed her as joint sixth on the British U15 all-time list, underlining that her speed is not confined to the short indoor straight.
This latest indoor personal best, then, is no coincidence. It fits neatly into a coherent development pathway, where each season brings measured and consistent improvement. While some ultra-early talents peak abruptly, Oteng appears to be progressing along a controlled curve, with physical development gradually aligning with technical refinement.
Her position on the all-time lists is more than a statistical footnote. It speaks to the current depth of British women’s sprinting at youth level. Reaching seventh at such an age means surpassing entire generations of athletes in a country with a long, strong and very much ongoing sprinting tradition — one illustrated most recently by Amy Hunt’s world silver medal. For Honor Oteng, it is a further indication of genuine talent, and one that suggests her name will continue to surface as the winter unfolds.
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