The Anglo Celtic Plate (ACP) is a team competition held between the home nations of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. It is held over the classic 100km (62.2 miles) distance and the home nations take it in turn to host the event. In 2026 Ireland is hosting at Limerick in the West of Ireland on Saturday 21st March.
The ACP was the brain child of John Foden (see image above presenting the 2007 ACP winner Jezz Bragg) as a way to promote the classic 100km distance in the UK. The first ACP was held in 1995, at Nottingham on a 5km course around the water sports complex at Holme Peirrepoint. The first year only men’s teams competed from England, Scotland, and Ireland.
John, an ultra distance runner himself, also organised several ultra races including the Nottingham 100km and the 145 mile Spartathlon trail race in Greece. As ultra distance running grew internationally in the 1980’s and 90’s, the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF, now Worold Athletics) encouraged by the International Association of Ultrarunners, ( IAU), recognised 100km as the standard international distance over which championships could be held and records acknowledged. John saw the ACP as a way of acting as an international stepping stone for aspiring ultra runners who had aspirations of making the Great Britain and Northern Ireland 100km team.
Myself and the small, enthusiastic Sri Chinmoy Athletic Club had been staging a 100km event in Edinburgh on a traffic free course at the Heriot Watt University campus since 1992. As the idea was to circulate the race around the British Isles, John Foden invited us to host the Anglo Celtic Plate in Scotland in the following year, 1996, when women’s teams were invited for the first time.
Over the last 30 years the ACP has circulated around the home nations and Ireland. John’s original idea of having an annual flagship event that encourgaed the top runners to compete against each other, giving many their their first taste of international competition, has been proven. It has helped to raise standards, and act as a springboard to the full GB and NI team on one level while also enabling other ultra runners to have the opportunity to race over the classic 100km distance or just challenge themselves to finish the classic distance.
Many Irish and Home Nations athletes have been selected for their National 100km team as a result of good performances in the event. Future world champions Simon Pride and Lizzy Hawker had their first taste of 100km racing in the anglo-plate. In recent years, Sarah Webster has set a European record the last time the ACP was held at Perth in Scotland. Performances at that event provided the majority of the GB and NI team for that years IAU world Championship in India with Sarah going on to win a bronze medal and the womens and men’s teams achieving silver and bronze team medals respectively.
Although 100km events are very popular on the continent attracting fields of several hundred, theACP event, some years, has served as the only opportunity in the UK for British ultra runners to run the classic distance.
The current ACP individual champions are Henry Hart of Scotland and Kelsey Price of England, with Scotland’s men and England’s women being the ACP team champions.
With the announcement of the IAU World 100km championships in Spain in September, competiton for places in the GB and Ni and Irish teams will hopefully raise standards once again.
Adrian Tarit Stott
January 2026