Recently, 16-year-old Alex Lennon has been catching the attention of social media followers with his energetic post-race interviews. These popular videos have stemmed from his standout performances over the past month, which include a remarkable win in the under-17 men’s English National cross-country race at Parliament Hill, claiming the under-17 Inter Counties title and English Schools Cross Country victory in the senior boys’ race.
Lennon, from Surrey, may be on a winning streak, but he hasn’t just emerged from nowhere. Last year, he finished fifth in the 1500m at the European Under-18 Championships ahead of fellow Briton Evan Grime and, aside from running, he has previously owned a business that combined his passions for fashion and athletics.
With his cross-country season now behind him, Lennon is turning his focus to the track, where he aims to qualify for the European Under-20 Championships in August while also exploring opportunities to train in the United States.
How did it feel to win the National cross country title?
I was on a high for a very long time after that race because of all of the media attention. I hope it didn’t get to my head too much. After seeing my AW video interview on Instagram and TikTok it was pretty crazy. All my friends saw it and it was amazing seeing new people being brought into running after that video.
Did you know you were capable of winning?
There are some races that you’ve prepared absolutely perfectly for and in your head you’re thinking: “There’s no way this could go wrong”. I wouldn’t say that was one of them. I was coming into the race thinking “I’m not sure about this” but it got to about halfway and the pace was slowing down a bit but I was feeling quite all right. By then I was thinking I might have this in the bag. So, as the race went on, I got filled with more confidence.
My coach says, as a rule, never check your shoulders, because if you do that then you know you’re dying. But I had to give it a quick little look at that last corner and, when I saw they were a little bit back, that was my cue just to enjoy the end of it.
Alex Lennon (David Hewitson)
How had the cross-country season been before the National?
I find cross-country is a bit of a strange season because you have a few races in October, and you have a long period from November through to February where there’s not really much going on.So I was basing a lot of my expectations of what happened in November, which turned out to not actually be so accurate. The Liverpool Cross Challenge was a rough time and Cardiff didn’t go quite as I hoped but so much time had passed from those earlier races [up to the National] that I think my body had time to improve from training and whatnot.
How did you get into athletics in the first place?
Athletics came about in year five in school, where it was just school PE and school cross-country. I did one training session a week with my club at Sutton & District for a few years until Year eight and that’s when I started getting a bit more serious.
What does an average week of training look like for you?
My average mileage would be in the realm of 70-80km per week so I try to supplement that with cross-training wherever I can. I do the long run on Sunday and Tuesday and Thursday and they tend to vary in length.
How was your Great Britain debut experience at the European Under-18 Championships?
It felt completely surreal to me. It was one of the most insane things I’ve ever done. On the track, I’d never competed for England and I’d never competed for GB before that so to go straight to the Euros, it was such a big step out of nowhere.
I had a very lucky competition. It was top four to make it through to the finals and in the heats I came fifth. I was absolutely devastated. Afterwards, I didn’t want to talk to anyone and I just wanted to do my own thing. Then I got a message saying one of the boys ahead of me had been disqualified.
To hear I was in the final was like a dream come true. To have my coach there, my dad there watching, to run in that final was the best thing ever. I think, with all the heat off me, I was able to run a much better race. I felt more comfortable and finished in fifth.
What did that experience teach you?
It taught me one thing that I still carry through today which is the power of doing everything right on the day of the event. For the Europeans, I wasn’t quite with it in the heat. There are lots of things I normally do before races that I just forgot to do. I didn’t do my energy gels. I didn’t write up a plan of what I was going to do beforehand and so if there’s one thing those heats taught me, it was do everything right on the day of the race.
Why did you decide to set up an athletics fashion business?
My old business, Bolt Running, was a way for me to combine my two passions of fashion and athletics. I brought that together for people in my age group and we hosted long runs and I did special clothing drops.
It was such an amazing thing to be able to bring all these people together and it’s absolutely something I would love to continue. I lost a bit of passion for creating the clothes, but I never lost the passion for bringing communities together.
So if there’s one thing that I would like to do in 2025, it’s just to host long runs, sessions and things that I can bring people from my age group together.
What is next for you?
I would love to go to the US for university. This season is all about trying to get the best time I possibly can so I can open as many doors as I can for my future. The European Under-20 Champs is something I’ve really got my eyes on.
