{"id":1040006712,"date":"2025-08-02T16:21:25","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T15:21:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/athleticsweekly.com\/?p=1040006712"},"modified":"2025-08-02T20:33:02","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T19:33:02","slug":"michael-allison-from-lockdown-novice-to-uk-javelin-champ","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/athleticsweekly.com\/news\/michael-allison-from-lockdown-novice-to-uk-javelin-champ-1040006712\/","title":{"rendered":"Michael Allison \u2013 from lockdown novice to UK javelin champ"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oxford Uni physics student taught himself how to throw in a field during the pandemic but is now the best in Britain<\/p>\n

Michael Allison taught himself to throw the javelin by watching YouTube videos and practising in a field during the Covid pandemic. Now, five years later, he has improved his best to 78.48m to win the UK title in Birmingham.<\/p>\n

The throw is the best mark at the UK Championships for 13 years and lifts the 21-year-old to 16th on the UK all-time rankings.<\/p>\n

In a top quality competition on Saturday (Aug 2) at the Alexander Stadium, Ben East also threw a PB of 77.40m for silver as Daniel Bainbridge threw a PB of 76.86m for third.<\/p>

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A physics student at Oxford University, Allison started with high jump and rugby as a youngster but began throwing the javelin on a football pitch during lockdown with his first competitions for his club, Windsor, Slough, Eton & Hounslow in 2021 \u2013 finishing, among other things, fifth in the English Schools Champs.<\/p>\n

He met his future coach Tom Dobbing at the\u00a0UK Javelin Throw Association Javelin Competition later that year and went on to throw at the 2022 World Under-20 Championships in Colombia before winning bronze at the 2023 European Under-20 Championships in Jerusalem.<\/p>\n

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Michael Allison (Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cI\u2019m absolutely ecstatic,\u201d he said on Saturday, \u201cit\u2019s nearly a two-metre PB but more importantly it\u2019s an 11m season\u2019s best.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was ill last season and this year I have been really struggling mentally to get back into it. So, I\u2019ve thrown just under 68 this year and much further in training so I knew it was there. It was just mental. I have been working with a sports psychologist through UKA Futures and I have a really good coach behind me so I\u2019m just happy it all came together on the day.\u201d<\/p>

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READ MORE: Okoye breaks 40-year-old discus CBP<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Runner-up East added: \u201cThis is the most fun I have had at a UK Champs. Everyone in the crowd was getting involved with the claps, so it was the perfect environment for throwing.\u201d<\/p>\n

More articles about the Novuna UK Athletics Champs here<\/a>.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oxford Uni physics student taught himself how to throw in a field during the pandemic but is now the best […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":1040006713,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_searchwp_excluded":"","inline_featured_image":false,"wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_championship":0,"wds_primary_country":0,"wds_primary_sports":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,160],"tags":[],"championship":[],"country":[],"sports":[36016],"class_list":["post-1040006712","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-reports","sports-javelin-throw"],"acf":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/athleticsweekly.com\/news\/michael-allison-from-lockdown-novice-to-uk-javelin-champ-1040006712\/","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Michael Allison \u2013 from lockdown novice to UK javelin champ","url":"http:\/\/athleticsweekly.com\/news\/michael-allison-from-lockdown-novice-to-uk-javelin-champ-1040006712\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/athleticsweekly.com\/news\/michael-allison-from-lockdown-novice-to-uk-javelin-champ-1040006712\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/athleticsweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Allison-1-200x300.jpg","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/athleticsweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/Allison-1-scaled-e1754147763260.jpg"},"articleSection":"Reports","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jason Henderson"}],"creator":["Jason Henderson"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Athletics Weekly","logo":"https:\/\/athleticsweekly.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/AW-logo_with-website.png"},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2025-08-02T15:21:25Z","datePublished":"2025-08-02T15:21:25Z","dateModified":"2025-08-02T19:33:02Z"},"rendered":"