The record-breaking 13-year-old aiming for the Olympics

BBC News

23-06-2025

"She's 13, just about to turn 14, so those times at that age are phenomenal," Annabelle Fasuba's coach Neal Edwards tells the BBC. Fasuba, who lives and trains in Plymouth, has run the fastest 200m for a British girl aged 15 or under since 1989.Her time of 24.02 seconds has only been beaten by Olympic 400m bronze medallist Katharine Merry and Diane Smith 36 years ago.Meanwhile her 100m personal best of 11.69 is just a quarter of a second off the qualifying standard for the last Commonwealth Games and is the fifth best for a runner aged under 15 in Britain - and she still has another year to go in the age group."What's even more amazing is she only started just over 12 months ago," added Edwards."So a lot of the work we've done is just technical work, we haven't done any really hard training, we haven't pushed her, we haven't really stretched her that much, it's just been about technique."
Olympic athletics pedigree
However those who are familiar with Annabelle's family will know she does have genetics on her side.Her father Olusoji was World Indoor 60m champion in 2008, won Olympic bronze in the 4x100m relay in 2004 and was a Commonwealth Games silver medallist in 2006.His personal best over 100m of 9.85 that he set in May 2006 was the African record until South Africa's Akani Simbine broke it in July 2021. Meanwhile her mother Ngozi was also an international athlete and ran in the 4x400m relay at the Athens Olympics in 2004. "My husband was good, I was good, when my mother used to run she was very fast, so Annabelle being fast is not like it's a surprise, because I know it's what she took from us," Ngozi said. "The way I've seen my daughter work is unbelievable," added Olusoji, who joined the Royal Navy in 2011 and works in logistics. "Looking at her training and what she's doing at the age of 12 or 13 compares to what I did then, I think she's braver than me."She runs the middle distances really hard, and I remember I used to try and hide, but she goes for it and smiles as well."When I was 12 I knew nothing about athletics, I was just playing around in the sand just having fun"Yeah, I was fast then, but I never thought about the Olympics or anything."But watching what my daughter is doing now compared to that time, I think she's going to achieve more than what I've ever done in my career and I think that's every father's dream."
Having seen her father's Olympic medal as a child, Annabelle has always known she was part of a sporting family.But racing fast and being competitive is something fairly new to the 13-year-old. "I first realised I was really quick when I was in year six and through primary school everyone was asking me why I was so fast when we did sports day," she said."I really like to train and race and it just comes from that."I'm hoping to go to the Olympics to run the 100m and 200m and hopefully win them."And Annabelle might not be alone in the next generation of her family to race at the highest level. Her younger sister is also really fast, and she is still at primary school. "The dream for her, and she's already told me this, is to get more medals than I've got," Olusoji added."But for me as a father the greatest achievement for my kids is having my eldest and youngest in the relay team together."Last Friday she broke the year three record."Watching her sister doing that she's already taken an eye for what she wants to do already."