Clash of the Clubs IV
Meet the Teams: Blackheath and Bromley

17 September 2025

Club Profile

• Blackheath & Bromley Harriers Athletic Club, to give its full name, is one of the oldest and most successful athletics clubs in the United Kingdom. Based at the Norman Park Community Sports Centre in southeast London, it is run mainly by dedicated volunteers whose vision is to be widely regarded as a highly successful, professionally managed, exemplar athletics club that enhances the lives of its members and the local community.

• Its history stretches all the way back to 1869 and the club has gone through a number of changes over the years. Originally a men’s only organisation, it first welcomed women in 1992 and took its current name upon a merger in 2003.

• The club has been home to numerous top-level performers, including the iconic Sydney Wooderson – who set world records in the 1930s and won the European Athletics Championship 5000m in 1946 – and, most recently, three stars selected to represent their country at this year’s World Championships in Athletics – the 2019 World 200m Champion Dina Asher-Smith (100m, 200m, 4x100m), Marcia Sey (100m hurdles) and double Olympic medallist Sam Reardon (400m, 4x400m and mixed 4x400m) who also appeared in the first DNA edition.

• Blackheath & Bromley offers an entry to athletics academy, which each season normally attracts more than 200 kids under 13 years old, and for many years its young athletes have enjoyed success at both the English Schools Championships and the UK Youth Development League, which the club won every year from 2021 to 2024 to qualify for the following year’s DNA U20 Clubs and then, just two weeks ago, it won the 2025 title.

• Website: https://bbharriersac.org.uk/

• Instagram: instagram.com/bbharriersac

DNA History

• In Leiria, Blackheath & Bromley will be one of an exclusive group of just three clubs that have competed in all four editions of the Clash of the Clubs, the others being AK Skoda Plzen from Czechia and Ratoath AC from Ireland. Blackheath & Bromley finished second in the 2022 A Final, second in the 2023 B Final and fourth in last year’s A Final.

Athletes to Watch

• Sprinter Nevie Tamblyn, 16 (instagram.com/nevierunz) has personal bests of 12.39 in the 100m and 25.12 in the 200m. Earlier this month she ran a leg for the Blackheath & Bromley 4x100m team that won the UK Youth Development League Final.

• Oliver Driscoll, 18, (instagram.com/oli.driscoll), has set personal bests this year of 21.96 for the 200m and 49.00 for the 400m.  In 2024 he ran a leg on Blackheath & Bromley’s mixed 4x400m relay that placed third in the A Final at the DNA U20 Clubs in Pombal.

• Emilia Adese, 15, (instagram.com/emy_adese1) has thrown the 3kg shot a personal best of 15.70m and is undefeated in 2025. Her victories include the U17 category competitions at both the English Schools Championships and the England Athletics Age Group Championships. On the track she has a 100m PB of 12.69 that was set in 2023.

• Middle distance specialist Joe Scanes, 16, (instagram.com/joescanes), has personal bests of 1:52.44 in the 800m and 3:49.16 in the 1500m. He won the English Schools Championship 3000m in July and last winter won the Inter County Cross Country Championships.

• Divine Iheme (instagram.com/lightning_iheme) set the u15 world record in the 100m with a time of 10.30.