Outstanding London Marathon for St Mary’s Athletes

The 2024 London Marathon saw outstanding results for St Mary’s Endurance Performance Centre (EPC) athletes and alumni.

St Mary’s Alumnus Emile Cairess finished in third place overall, and the first placed Briton. Emile completed the iconic 26.2mile course in a time of 2:06:46. This result automatically qualifies him to run the Marathon for Team GB at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

Emile’s performance was just short of fellow St Mary’s alumnus Sir Mo Farah’s British Record of 2:05:11. Emile had previously matched Sir Mo’s 10km British road record of 27:44 and is also the current British 10-mile record holder at 45:57.

Speaking of the Emile’s performance, Head of Sport St Mary’s Andrew Reid-Smith said, “The marathon is a difficult event to get right. Emile produced a world-class performance that will add to his experience and make him confident about running well in Paris. Had conditions been better I’m sure he would have run even quicker.

“Along with Mo and Charlotte Purdue, this means that St Mary’s runners now figure in three of the quickest marathons ever run by GB athletes.”

Fellow St Mary’s EPC alumnus Jack Rowe served as an official pacer for Emile. Jack is one of four GB athletes who have secured a qualification time in the 5000m for Paris 2024, having run a time of 13:04.75, and will be hoping to secure his place on the team in the coming months.

In the Women’s Elite Race, St Mary’s alumna Becky Briggs also competed. She completed the race in a time of 02:35:25 to finish as the second-place British female and twelfth place overall.

Both Becky and Jack train at St Mary’s and receive support as as part of the University being an England Athletics Hub Site. The Hub provides coaching support, coach education, mentoring, and a range of sports science and therapy services for elite athletes in partnership with English Athletics.

Becky was joined on the course by fellow St Mary’s alumna Charlotte Purdue who was an official pacer for the race. Charlotte has already secured her place in the Paris 2024 Olympics in the Women’s Marathon as is currently third on the women’s British all-time Marathon record list, having run at time of 2:22:17 in 2021.

Also already qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympics is St Mary’s Alumna Beth Potter who will compete for Team GB in the Women’s Triathlon. Beth is already an Olympian, having competed in the 10,000m at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.