Backstraight Boys (& Girl) Athletics Chat

Send us Fan Mail Budapest 2023 is finally upon us so it was time to pull out the big guns. To discuss the World Championships we thought we should get on some legendary champions and they don't come any more legendary than these two great ladies.  Between them Dame Denise Lewis and Christine Ohuruogu have won everything possible in the sport with Olympic, World, European and Commonwealth Gold...

Send us Fan Mail When we’re not debating relay lineups, there’s nothing us Athletics nerds love more than chatting about selection policy and now is the time to do it.  With Budapest on the horizon and the team recently announced, it goes without saying there’s plenty to discuss, good and bad.  To help us out we’ve invited on some special guests with very different selection experiences.  Amber An...

Send us Fan Mail Straight after the London Athletics Meet we thought we'd drop you a special, no frills episode discussing all the highlights. We chat about sensational performances from Femke Bol, Max Burgin, Ryan Crouser, Noah Lyles, Maree Jose Ta Lou, Jemma Reekie and many more!!! Roll on Budapest.  Head over to Instagram @backstraightboyspodcast for interviews with all the stars  Please e...

Send us Fan Mail There's been a feast of athletics over the last few weeks so we invited our good friend and athletics fanatic Lloyd Kempson to join as talk all things track. Lloyd is a runner, coach and co-owner of the Track and Field social media platform @Trackstaa. We chat about UK and US Trials, the Euro U23's, the Silesia Diamond League but mostly our current obsession with the w80...

Send us Fan Mail It's been 2 months since Jody and Bayo were in the same room together. Now that they have stopped gallivating around the world, it's time to reunite and discuss everything that has been going on this season. Join us to chat about our favourite performances so far this year and the UK Trials happening this weekend (Just don't mention pacing lights).   Please enjoy, p...

Send us Fan Mail A few months back Anyika Onuora was our guest on Instagram Live to discuss her wonderful new book My Hidden Race. Had so many requests that promised to release it as a pod so that all of our listeners not on Instagram can hear her fascinating story, so, by popular demand, here it is. Apologies for the sound quality, we've had to rip the audio from IG but hope you enjoy listen...

Send us Fan Mail We usually save out interview specials for retired legends of the sport but after this  winter's exploits we 'Why wait?'. Here's everybody's favourite singing Long Jumper, Jazmin Sawyers. Big thanks to Mel Anning for editing.  Please enjoy, please subscribe and please let us know what you think on all our socials.  Thanks for listening and follow us on Soc...

Send us Fan Mail We promised to repost some of our fave Backstraight episodes and what better place to start than our UK Sprint Queen Special from back in 2018. Please enjoy, please subscribe and please let us know what you think on all of our socials  Please enjoy, please subscribe and please let us know what you think on all our socials.  Thanks for listening and follow us on Social Media at  In...

Send us Fan Mail Keely made it look easy, Karsten was in PB form, Nafi made history and Jaz had us all jumping for joy. The Boys have been journalising in Istanbul and in the studio they are joined by a lady who loves athletics as much as they do - Mel Anning.  Journalist and administrator in Sussex, a founding trustee of the Lloyd Cowan Bursary  - which supports young athletes and coaches - and m...

Send us Fan Mail Having been unceremoniously dumped by their devoted girlfriend of the last 5 years, the newly single boys run back into the arms of an old flame and welcome OG Backstraight Boy, Matt Wood onto the show. It was Matt who introduced Claire and the twins in the first place so you have him to thank for the last 5 years of podcast mayhem. A former GB international Matt now heads Run Thr...

Send us Fan Mail Our 100th episode passed us by in a flash.  Like a home straight Kyle Langford. Like the naps you desperately snatch whilst balancing a championship across the globe with your commitments at home. Like the time between each jaw-dropping performance from Rojas and Duplantis.  We missed it just as surely as we've habitually missed Diamond Leagues (why are they so inconsistently...

Send us Fan Mail Where to even begin? 2022 had it all: a World Indoors, World Outdoors, Commonwealths, Europeans, and the GOAT Shelly-Ann adjusting her hair mid-200 metres. Can you even believe that Marcel Jacobs beating Coleman in that fantastic 60m was only nine months ago? Us neither. It's bonkers how much athletics there's been this year. Bonkers and brilliant - but also impossible t...

Send us Fan Mail EUROPEAN CHAMPS REVIEW. GET IT WHILE IT'S HOT. Twitter: @BackstraightB & @Claire_GThomas Insta: @BackstraightBoysPodcast & @ClaireGThomas  Please enjoy, please subscribe and please let us know what you think on all our socials.  Thanks for listening and follow us on Social Media at  Insta - (@BackstraightBoysPodcast). Email - backstraightboyspod@gmail.com

Send us Fan Mail 'Three is a magic number' - and so it often proves. Destiny's Child. Harry, Ron, and Hermione. Major outdoor champs this summer. Members of this podcast. Stages in the wonderful, bronze-clinching personal best achieved by this episode's guest in the Commonwealth triple jump final. That's right: the one and only Naomi Metzger joined us for our Birmingham re...

Send us Fan Mail It's our 100th episode. One *hundred* podcasts. Can you believe that? We certainly can't. Jody and Bayo are sleep deprived after watching all of Eugene live, Claire is trying (and failing) to instil some sort of structure into our Oregon World Championships review, and all three of us are fuelled by M&S birthday cake. It's neither organised nor comprehensive, bu...

Send us Fan Mail Yo: it's the Oregon set.  Backstraight Boys: live and direct. Kath Merry mash up (she was with Wightman on the deck). It's the Eugene World Champs - we're live and direct. Just in case you missed it: here's our mid-Worlds review, with a lengthy and outstanding cameo from the ever-glorious Kath Merry - who dialled in from Oregon (and brought some much-needed kno...

Send us Fan Mail Made in haste and love. Join our lobby. Chat to us on socials xoxo  Please enjoy, please subscribe and please let us know what you think on all our socials.  Thanks for listening and follow us on Social Media at  Insta - (@BackstraightBoysPodcast). Email - backstraightboyspod@gmail.com

Send us Fan Mail After a brief sabbatical (Claire was feeling a bit swamped), we're back - and all roads lead to Eugene. The Worlds are a week and a bit away, with Commonwealths and Euros looming large, and the British squad has been announced. It's big, it's teeming with talent, and it's getting us as extremely excited as we always are for anything involving supremely fit indi...

Send us Fan Mail Jody and Bayo went to Belgrade, and returned with: photos with everyone's favourite Italian high jumper, a fractured wrist, memories of a splendid birthday feat. the athleticos, and... Covid. A mixed bag, it's safe to say. More broadly, the 2022 World Indoors were a varied championships themselves: Keely and Elliot were DNS, and Kat was DNF, but there were 3 world record...

Send us Fan Mail Full description to follow, but - for now - treat yourselves to an hour of Belgrade chatter with multiple world indoor medallist, Jamie 'Sporting Hair of the Year' Baulch: as heard via Instagram live earlier this week. Rate, review, subscribe, and SAY 'HI': @BackstraightB, @Claire_GThomas, and @JamieBaulch The first major championship of 2022 is upon us... phwo...

Send us Fan Mail Keely doing Keely things, baby 'brig setting world records, Mondo soaring, and the Winter Olympics rocked by a doping scandal with a 15-year-old girl at its heart. 2022 hasn't exactly got off to a quiet start, has it? Backstraight is back (alright!) - with a romp through recent indoor results, a discussion about the Kamila Valieva story and Sha'Carri's take on...

Send us Fan Mail In so many ways, 2021 was a year to forget. It won't be one looked back upon with universal fondness, and there are lots of reasons to be pleased to leave it behind. But one of the reasons we love sport is the phenomenal escapism it offers, and the way its narratives can transcend arenas to leave indelible marks upon the world we live in. On the track, on the field, and out o...

Send us Fan Mail World Athletics have named their end-of-season gong longlists. They've also named their shortlists, but we weren't organised enough to realise that, so we covered all ten athletes per field. Death, taxes, and us merrily getting things slightly wrong on this podcast... Anyway: great fun pitting Elaine against Yulimar, and debating Karsten versus Ryan. There was some *wond...

Send us Fan Mail Diamond League finals, Sha'Carri and #DeadLast, a shout out to the surprisingly excellent Continental Tour, *that* 100 metres in Nairobi, a change in attitudes towards DSD athletes, and plenty more besides - including, of course, quotes from both 'Grease' and 'The Hollow Men'. It might be rambling, but at least we don't spend 90% of the pod talking ab...

Send us Fan Mail Two World titles, two Olympic silvers, and a personal best of 7.11m. Fiona May achieved an awful lot in a stellar long jump career, but - despite having been born in Slough and becoming a Junior World Champion whilst competing for Great Britain - her greatest moments were for the Azzurri, after she switched citizenships in 1994, and never looked back. Her daughter, Larissa, is Eur...