Kirsty Wade - Club President

Kirsty with the Queens baton at Llandrindod lake, 2014

Former Brecon AC junior member and world athletics star Kirsty Wade has kindly agreed to be Brecon AC’s President. Kirsty lives on the Isle of Lewis off the west coast of Scotland but has often talked fondly of her time as a junior at Brecon AC when she lived in Llandrindod Wells and attended school there.  

A few words from Kirsty Wade for Brecon AC video

As Kirsty McDermott, Kirsty began her meteoric rise to fame with victory in the U15 AAA’s Championship 800m in a fantastic time of 2.11.10 before winning the U17 crown the following year 4 seconds quicker. However, in 1982 Kirsty really came to prominence when she won the Commonwealth Games 800m title in Brisbane. In 1985 she smashed the UK 800m record recording 1.57.42 which stood as a record for 10 years and is still the 5th fastest UK time ever. Current world star Keely Hodgkinson and former Olympic winner Kelly Holmes are only a little quicker than this. She also broke the UK mile record although that was broken shortly afterwards by the controversial Zola Budd.

In 1986 Kirsty became the first woman to win both the 800m and 1500m in the Commonwealth Games when they were held in Edinburgh. In 1987 Kirsty won the European Cup 1500m and over the next 4 years she competed for GB at two World Championships (Rome and Tokyo) as well as the Seoul Olympics. An absolutely outstanding athletics career that started in the mid 1970’s when her PE teacher Tes Davies suggested that she join Brecon AC at the age of 11…

Winning for Wales!