Competitive runners will descend on Cardiff’s Bute Park this month as the city hosts the 2026 UK Athletics 5K Road Race Championships on Sunday, 27 September.
Organised by online running shoes and clothing retailer SportsShoes.com, the fifth edition of the SportsShoes Podium Home Nationsevent will bring together teams from England, Ireland and Wales.
Delivered in partnership with main sponsor New Balance, the event will carry UK Athletics 5K Road Race Championship status, with the day’s racing staged at Coopers Field in the park.
A SportsShoes x New Balance team will also take part and runners who are not already part of a national team can form their own composite teams to compete for prize money by contacting [email protected].
Athletes will be seeded based on their qualifying time when entries close.
SportsShoes Podium has been hosting record-breaking 5K events across the UK since the retailer acquired the race series in 2023, attracting thousands of UK and international athletes during that time.
These have included Olympians Emile Cairess, Beth Potter, Alex Yee and Narve Nordas in addition to competitive runners from across the UK and overseas.
Jack Rowe and Alexandra Bell won the 2025 races in Cardiff, with Rowe’s winning time of 13:32 standing as the men’s course record, and Calli Thackery’s 15:29 from 2023 setting the women’s mark.
Among the top elite entries for Home Nations 2026 is last year’s English 5,000 metres champion, Jack Kavanagh. He ran a personal best of 13:34 for 5K at the Podium Festival in Leicester in March 2025.
SportsShoes Podium race coordinator, Mia France, said: “Bute Park has become one of our favourite venues and bringing the UK Athletics 5K Road Race Championships to Coopers Field gives the day real weight.
“The Home Nations races put national teams directly against each other over 5K, so anyone chasing a national title has to earn it in the middle of a team battle.
“Working together with New Balance, British Athletics and Welsh Athletics, we will give runners in Cardiff and across Wales the opportunity to show up, race hard and chase quick times.”
Away from the racing, the event village at Coopers Field will have food and coffee vendors alongside a music truck, with a livestream of the races shown on a big screen.
Entries for the event close at midnight on Sunday 20 September. To sign up or for more information on the race series, visit www.sportsshoes.com/store/home-nations or search ‘SportsShoes Podium Home Nations 2026’.
