When stars like Laura Muir, Georgia Hunter Bell, and Neil Gourley are heading the UK Athletics Indoors Championship, the buzz will be obviously there. The gateway to the 2025 World Indoors Championship and the European Athletics Championships is always a serious affair. What that means for the track and field fans is a high standard of competition and an exciting spectacle. That’s what draws the fans, doesn’t it? It’s getting to see records being broken, and history being made. This 2025 edition promised all that. But an unforeseen development could have thrown all that into jeopardy.

The morning of Day 1 of the Championships was rather unsettling for the organizers, athletes, and fans. A fire outage saw the whole Utilita Arena of Birmingham evacuated, and the event was delayed. Was it serious? The event organizers did say everything was under control, and the championships started with a 1.5-hour delay. Still, from the outside, it could have been a risk for the fans and the athletes. But it seems like they had ample faith in the integrity and efficiency of the organizers, not to mention the championship is just too precious.

So, we wouldn’t exactly say anti-climactic, but the turnout was truly inspiring. As per Athletics Weekly’s X post, the event saw an attendance of 13,000 over the weekend. For some perspective, it was the highest turnout for the championships since 1964. Held in the Wembley Arena, the competition back then even had a different name: the AAA Indoor Championships – just a little trivia for our newer fans.

This time, the record turnout certainly makes you wonder if the fans are gravitating more toward track and field lately. I mean, surely the fire news would have kept some fans away. After the evacuation, the investigations revealed the fire started because of a cooker catching fire in a nearby flat. Former Olympian Katharine Merry tweeted about how it was at the stadium after that evacuation: “Not made it into the Utilita Arena yet. It’s been fully evacuated due to a fire. Fire brigade here and smoke coming from the top floor.”

Many fans could have turned away because of the danger. All the commotion and the safety protocols could have traumatized the fans. Surely it was a disturbing experience for anybody inside that stadium during that time. But they still stayed back. They waited for the event to resume, and they recorded more attendance than the 2024 one, which was an Olympics season. Although everyone is a winner when an event is successful, the monetary profits were reaped by UK Athletics. From the turnout, it can be roughly estimated that the earnings from the ticket sales were in the ballpark of $3M.

But like we said, everyone’s a winner. The fans were entertained throughout the 2 days, and most importantly, the competition saw numerous records.

With World Indoors Spot on offer, Track and Field records start piling up in the UK

We learned a few things from the 2025 edition of the UK Athletics Indoors Championship. Most importantly, the sprinters are getting faster and faster. It’s not just about breaking the records, it’s the way the records are being broken. For instance, the 3000m race saw all the top 3 finishers break the 3000m short track record of 7:49.61 set by Dave Lewis. The winner of the 2025 edition, George Mills, ran 7:40.16 while 2nd-placed and 2024 champion James West was just 0.17 seconds behind. Even 3rd-placed Henry McLuckie finished with a time of 7:48.88.

For the 2025 edition winner Mills, it was an important victory because of the stakes. He said, “Today was about winning first of all to secure Euros and Worlds place”. Sure, but a record goes into the history books, like Neil Gourley, who broke Eddie King’s 1999 mark of 3:40.24 to win the 1500m race. Neil ran a 3:38.84, becoming the new holder of the fastest time. However, something similar to the 3000m race happened in this race too. All the podium finishers again broke the previous standing record. Tom Keen with 3:39.97 and Tyler Bilyard with 3:39.98 clinched silver and bronze, respectively, with all now ahead of King’s mark.

Let’s talk about some field records being broken, shall we? The 2008 shot put record of 20.66m achieved by US athlete Garrett Johnson was trumped by Scott Lincoln in this edition. In the process, Lincoln also clinched his 19th national title. Lincoln threw a 20.86 in his fourth attempt to enter the record books. Speaking after the win, Lincoln surely acknowledged the record attendance: “It always feels special to add another championship medal and there was a great turn-out today.”

Other than this, there were many personal bests and season bests recorded by the UK athletes as they geared up for the ultimate indoor prize. Even the worst of accidents fade in front of pure passion and determination.