Success for St Mary’s Athletes at British Championships

Athletes and Alumni from the Endurance Performance Centre at St Mary’s University, Twickenham saw a series of strong performances at the British Athletics Championships.

The Championships, which were hosted in Manchester on 4^th and 5^th September, came at the same time as alumnus Sir Mo Farah broke the one hour world record. Sir Mo ran 21330m over an hour, beating the previous record of 21285m set by Haile Gebrselassie in 2007, at the Diamond League meeting in Brussels on Friday 4^th September.

At the British Championships, Alumnus Jack Rowe finished second in the Men’s 5000m to win the Silver Medal and set a new personal best of 13:37.85. He was joining the race by fellow alumnus Ben Bradley, who also set a new personal best of 13:53.70 to finish sixth, and current student Ellis Cross, who finished in ninth.

In the Men’s 3000m Steeplechase, alumnus and former athletics team captain Daniel Jarvis set a new personal best of 8:39.70, as he finished in third to claim the Bronze Medal. Elsewhere in the Men’s 800m, Jake Wightman, who regularly trains at St Mary’s, took the Silver medal in 1:46.26, just 0.30 behind first place.

Current student Izzy Fry meanwhile competed in the women’s 5000m alongside alumna Sarah Astin. Izzy finished in fourth place, setting a new personal best of 16:02.00, with Sarah finishing in eighth, also setting a new PB of 18.08.90

Away from the track, St Mary’s Alumna and Rio 2016 Olympian Jade Lally came second in the Women’s Discus. Jade threw a best of 57.20m, just 0.75m behind the Gold Medal.

EPC Performance Coach Craig Winrow said, "In such a difficult year for our athletes and alumni, it was obvious from these performances that they worked hard during lockdown and came away from the championships with a host of personal bests. The EPC coaches are now looking forward to the return of students on to campus over the next few weeks and knuckling down to hard winter training."