Tito Odunaike was the standout name at the 2026 British Indoor Championships. In Birmingham, the 16-year-old produced a winning leap of 15.75m in the triple jump to become the youngest British male champion since 1979. No athlete of his age had claimed a senior national title since Phil Brown won the 200m crown 47 years ago. With this victory, Odunaike underlines what his performances had already suggested : he is currently the leading British men’s triple jumper of the indoor season.
A controlled competition and a 47-year-old record erased
Born on 2 April 2009 and hailing from Milton Keynes, Tito Odunaike has quickly established himself as one of the brightest prospects in British athletics. A member of Marshall Milton Keynes Athletic Club, he initially specialised in the long jump and also played football and rugby before focusing fully on the triple jump, particularly after a knee injury prompted a change in direction.
His impact at youth level was immediate. In 2024, he won the English Schools Championships with a personal best of 14.53m. A year later, he returned to the same competition and extended his mark to 15.65m, moving himself into the upper reaches of the British all-time under-17 rankings.
The winter of 2026 proved to be a decisive breakthrough. At the England Athletics U20 Indoor Championships in Sheffield, Odunaike produced a sequence of high-quality jumps: 15.18m, then 15.91m, before stretching his lifetime best to 16.01m. That performance set a new British U18 indoor best and placed him at the top of the world U18 rankings at the time.
The previous season, he had already competed at the European U18 Championships as one of the youngest athletes in the field, still only 15. In 2026, his objectives are clearly defined : the European U18 Championships in Rieti, where he will start as the outright favourite, and potentially the World U20 Championships in Eugene, depending on selection. In the longer term, he is considering a move to the United States to compete in the NCAA system, a pathway recently taken by several British athletes such as Lyla Belshaw and Matthew McKenna.
Arriving in Birmingham with a personal best of 16.01m at just 16 years of age, Odunaike brought stronger credentials than most of the senior field. The British Indoor Championships marked his first appearance at this level and he delivered.
After five rounds, he was already leading the competition with 15.48m. Before Jude Bright-Davies took his final attempt, the provisional podium was occupied by Odunaike (16), Harley Henry (17) and Sean-Connor Atafo (17), giving an average age of just 16.67 years. It was a striking reflection of the depth and quality emerging in British men’s triple jump, with Henry himself having already reached 15.72m this season.
In the sixth and final round, Odunaike improved to 15.75m to put the contest beyond doubt. Bright-Davies responded with 15.58m on his last attempt to secure silver, while Henry took bronze with 15.46m.
At 16, Odunaike became the youngest male winner of a title at the British Indoor Championships since 1979, erasing a record that had stood for 47 years.
His standing is further reinforced when placed in an international context. In the U18 category, he is currently ranked world number one with 16.01m — 69 centimetres clear of Jamaican Amani Phillips (15.32m). At U20 level, he sits third in the world behind Poland’s Krzysztof Rybnik (16.02m) and Cuba’s Giann Baxter (16.29m), both born in 2007 and therefore two years older than him.
Across all age groups, including seniors, Odunaike is ranked 67th in the world. The global list is headed by American Russell Robinson with 16.98m.
On the European stage, he dominates the U18 rankings by a wide margin, holding an 84-centimetre advantage over Greece’s Michail Delintzoglou (15.17m). In the U20 European standings, only Rybnik (16.02m) is ahead of him, while Odunaike holds a 26-centimetre advantage over fellow Briton Harley Henry (15.72m, born in 2008). Across all age categories in Europe, he currently ranks 27th. The leading European performer this season is Russia’s Ilya Telkunov with 16.82m. Excluding Russian athletes due to ongoing international uncertainty, the top European mark belongs to France’s Jonathan Seremes with 16.79m.
These rankings put his achievement into perspective. Odunaike is not only dominating his own age group but already positioning himself within the wider senior landscape in both Europe and globally, despite being only 16.
