A long-standing British record has finally fallen. At just 18 years of age, Jake Odey Jordan clocked a stunning 32.63 seconds over 300 metres indoors at the VA Showcase in the United States. In doing so, he bettered the previous national mark by more than a tenth of a second on a distance that may be rarely contested, but remains highly revealing. National records are scarce at any age; breaking one at 18 is a clear marker of exceptional talent and long-term potential.
The rise of Jake Odey-Jordan has never followed a straight line. Born in Hackney, East London, before crossing the Atlantic at a very young age, the British sprinter discovered athletics relatively late, far removed from the rigid, highly structured development pathways that dominate modern sprinting. Yet despite that delayed introduction, it took him little more than two full seasons to establish himself as one of the most exciting junior sprinters on the global stage.
The year 2024 felt almost like a fairytale. Odey-Jordan claimed titles at the New Balance Nationals, lowered his 200-metre personal best to a blistering 20.55 seconds, secured a bronze medal over that distance at the World U20 Championships in Lima, and added a silver medal as part of Great Britain’s 4×100m relay squad. All of that came despite a frustrating mishap at the European U18 Championships, where a tactical error cost him a place in the final. At just 16 and 17 years old, he was already competing on equal terms with older, more physically mature athletes.
The 2025 season, however, proved to be more of a period of assessment and transition. Not yet officially committed to a university programme, Odey-Jordan followed a path increasingly common among elite young athletes in the United States, visiting several NCAA powerhouses to identify the environment best suited to his long-term development. Florida appeared a strong possibility for a time, before the sprinter eventually set his sights on Texas Tech. That deliberate decision-making process came during a season in which his results did not always match the lofty expectations created by his breakthrough year.
Those quieter moments, however, never truly called his status into question. Despite an uneven campaign, Odey-Jordan continued to make technical strides, particularly indoors. Over 60 metres, he showed clear signs of progress, lowering his personal best to 6.64 seconds. That time made him the third-fastest British U20 athlete in history over the distance, behind only Mark Lewis-Francis and Dwain Chambers. It was an ideal way to launch his winter season and a performance that hinted strongly at faster times to come.
A supersonic 300 metres and a first national record
That promise materialised just days later, on 17 January 2026. Lining up for the indoor 300 metres at the VA Showcase — an unusual event, but one closely aligned with his 200-metre specialism — Jake Odey-Jordan found himself part of a race of extraordinary quality. The field was led by American phenom Tate Taylor, who would go on to break the U.S. high-school indoor record.
From the opening bend, the pace was ferocious. In a race run at near-supersonic speed, Odey-Jordan held his own superbly. Remaining in contention deep into the final straight, he managed to maintain form and relaxation despite the intense muscular fatigue that defines this brutally demanding distance. He crossed the line in 32.63 seconds — the second-fastest indoor 300m ever recorded by a U.S. high-school athlete, behind Taylor’s 32.45 — but crucially, it was also a new British national record. The previous mark of 32.76, set by Robert Tobin in 2006, had stood for nearly two decades.
While the 300 metres rarely attracts widespread attention, its significance should not be underestimated. The event is often viewed as a litmus test of a sprinter’s ability to combine raw speed with speed endurance. If an athlete can sustain velocity over 300 metres, the translation to 200 metres — and potentially to the 400 metres — becomes far more plausible. In time, Odey-Jordan may well be tempted by the longer sprint, either individually or as part of a relay set-up.
Producing such a performance at 18 places him in an extremely exclusive bracket, alongside athletes who later went on to flourish at senior world level.
The outlook remains rich with opportunity, though patience will be essential. In the short term, qualification for the World Indoor Championships is not out of reach, provided he can trim at least five hundredths of a second from his 60-metre personal best, with 6.59 the required entry standard. The option of competing at the 2026 World U20 Championships also remains open, even though Odey-Jordan already experienced success at that level in 2024 as one of the youngest athletes in the field.
Looking further ahead, the European Championships in Birmingham in the summer of 2026 loom large, potentially offering him the chance to compete on home soil for the first time at senior level. Beyond that, the gradual construction of an Olympic project — towards Los Angeles 2028 or Brisbane 2032 — is already taking shape.
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