St Mary’s Athletes take Centre Stage in Major Sporting Events

Athletes and alumni from the Endurance Performance and Coaching Centre (EPACC) at St Mary’s University, Twickenham took centre stage at two major sporting events at the weekend.

Alumnus Elliot Giles and EPACC athlete Jake Wightman took part at the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham while alumni Sir Mo Farah and Charlotte Purdue ran the Vitality Big Half marathon in London.

In the inaugural Vitality Big Half Sir Mo, who was named BBC Sports Personality of the Year in December at St Mary’s, won the race in a time of 1:01:40 as he prepared for April’s London Marathon in style.

There was also success for Charlotte Purdue as she finished as the quickest woman in the race in a time of 1:10:29, which meant she finished as the 35^th fastest across all competitors.

At the World Indoor Championships Elliot eased through his heat in the 800m to progress to the final where he was pipped to the Bronze medal by less than a quarter of a second by Spaniard Saúl Ordóñez. He thought he had won Bronze when second place Drew Windle was disqualified but the American was later reinstated meaning Elliot agonisingly missed out on a medal.

Jake also narrowly missed out on a medal when competing in the 1500m event. He comfortably progressed to the final after winning his heat but finished sixth, just 72 hundredths of a second off a Gold medal.

Director for Sport at St Mary’s Andrew Reid-Smith, said, “St Mary’s is very proud of the athletes and the performances they continue to produce.  It was great to see Mo and Charlotte winning their Vitality Big Half races at the weekend and Elliot and Jake running well at the World Indoors, narrowly missing out on winning medals.”