Duncan Williams produced a remarkable performance at the English Schools’ Athletics Championships, where the young British athlete broke the world age-13 long jump record with a leap of 7.06m. His outstanding mark erased a 14-year-old record and further underlined the emergence of one of the brightest young talents in British athletics, while also reflecting the rise of an exciting new generation of British jumpers.
World age-13 record for Duncan Williams
Breaking the seven-metre barrier is an ambition that many far older long jumpers spend years pursuing. Duncan Williams achieved it before even celebrating his 14th birthday. His superb 7.06m leap at the English Schools’ Athletics Championships improved the previous world age-13 best of 7.02m, set by Romania’s Gabriel Bitan in 2012, by four centimetres. While the performance was extraordinary, it did not come completely out of the blue for those who have followed Williams’ development over the past few seasons. His progression has been both rapid and remarkably consistent. After recording a personal best of 5.13m in 2024, he extended that mark to 6.18m in 2025, the world age-12 best. In doing so, he became the first British athlete in that age group to clear the six-metre barrier, surpassing the previous benchmark of 6.11m held by Czech athlete Tomas Kapusta.
Much like Olympic pole vault champion Armand Duplantis, one of Williams’ greatest strengths is his exceptional speed. When he produced his 6.18m jump in 2025, he already ranked among the fastest British athletes ever in his age group, sitting third on the all-time 60m list, fifth over 100m and sixth over 200m. Those sprinting credentials provide the ideal foundation for elite long jumping and go a long way towards explaining his ability to produce such outstanding performances at such a young age. Williams has continued to develop at an extraordinary rate. In the space of just one further season, he has added almost 90 centimetres to his lifetime best, taking it to a historic 7.06m.
As impressive as this world record is, however, it also serves as a reminder that success at a young age is no guarantee of future senior success. Gabriel Bitan, whose record Williams has now surpassed, went on to build a respectable international career, highlighted by a bronze medal at the 2023 European Indoor Championships. Nevertheless, he never established himself consistently among the world’s very best long jumpers. Athletic development remains a long-term process, even for the most gifted young prospects.
Williams’ achievement is also part of a much broader trend within British athletics. Traditionally, the United Kingdom has produced many of its leading talents in the sprint events and middle-distance running. In recent years, however, an increasingly promising generation of long jumpers and triple jumpers has begun to emerge. In the long jump, Michael Maguire, born in 2010, currently sits fourth on this season’s world Under-18 rankings with 7.69m, making him the highest-ranked athlete born in 2010 anywhere in the world. His advantage over others from the same birth year is particularly striking, with the next-best 2010-born athlete only appearing in 18th place on the global list.
The picture is arguably even stronger in the triple jump. Tito Odunaike currently leads the world Under-18 rankings with an outstanding 16.12m, holding a comfortable advantage over the rest of the field. At Under-20 level, British athletics is also exceptionally well represented, with Odunaike, Sean-Connor Atafo and Harley Henry all featuring inside the world’s top 20 this season. Odunaike and Atafo are both set to represent the United Kingdom at next month’s World Under-20 Championships in Eugene.
