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Jacob Allen repays the role model favour
It’s not a coach or a clubmate holding Jacob Allen to account. It’s 25 12-year-old boys. The England international spends his days as a PE teacher in a North London comprehensive, his mornings and nights seeking the next step on athletics’ endless ladder. Discipline, persistence, humility. Three traits he repeats to his students time and time again. “why the homework? Why school? ” they ask. Good habits, process, the mindset you pick up…
Alex Leprêtre – the power of the club
The year is 2014. A Saturday morning in September and 21-year-old Alex Leprêtre is emitting a radiant glow. Not from the sun beaming over his head but the funnel which he’s heading down. Another outing at Oak Hill parkrun, the number one barcode in his hand and a new personal best of 17:22. As he takes a moment to breath Leprêtre receives a tap on the shoulder from an unfamiliar face. John Clark…
“We can be competitive” – Samantha Harrison eyes Seville springboard to Olympic contention
Nearly 40 minutes on the clock in Riga, Samantha Harrison hits the front once more. On her right, the familiar beat of a rival turned friend, both in pursuit of World Championship glory. Calli Thackery and Harrison head an eight strong pack. Four Kenyans, two Ethiopians, two Brits have separated themselves from the best of the rest the world have to offer. It could be just another training run in Sherwood Forest with…
Ivybridge to Ivy League – the rise of Will Battershill to steeplechase contender
Will Battershill chose to spend his end of season break getting a humbling from the best in Japan. Representing the Ivy League, the 2023 British 3000m Steeplechase champion took part in the annual Izumo Ekiden. “They have unbelievable depth. In Japan I think everyone’s a 13:40 guy and they’re so good on the roads. So yeah, we got absolutely smashed because obviously October is not the right time of year for a group…
Matt Stonier – Man of the mud no longer
There was a long-time where consensus had it Matt Stonier was a man for the mud not the track. It was here that the Kent man had enjoyed his greatest moments. Inter-County U20 champion in 2020, he won the English Schools title that year too. Each time he outlasted his competitors in attritional conditions. It was a tag that followed him to Loughborough: “I’d made Euro U20s for cross but had never really…
Phil Norman seeks Paris tonic for Commonwealth pain
It’s been another busy day for 2021 Olympian Phil Norman. As a pole tester for Openreach, the Barnstaple resident spends his days climbing wooden poles checking for sign of rot and decay. A physically demanding role, as his profession ends so another starts. Returning home, Norman heads out for his run, almost always alone on the North Devon coast. He then attends to two-year-old Jamie and heads to bed for another reset to…
Peres Jepchirchir – New York footsteps to an Olympic defense
The 2023 women’s World Half Marathon race at the inaugural World Road Running Championships reaches its crescendo. Margaret Chelimo Kipkemboi leads as they enter the final kilometres. Her stride imperceptibly opening, it is a face of struggle that appears to stalk her. Peres Jepchirchir has won this title two times before, but in Riga her compatriot is intent on denying her. Small gaps appear to open. Or at least that is how we…
Adam Fogg hopes to be the metric mile’s forgotten man
Adam Fogg is his country’s 40th fastest 1500m runner of all-time. 68th in the current world rankings. Unfortunately for the 24-year-old he is also from Great Britain and Northern Ireland. Seven British men have run faster 1500m times this year than the 3:35.70 Fogg clocked in winning the Merck Laufgala in Pfungstadt, Germany in June 2023. One of those even ran 3.30 and didn’t make a World Championship team. Fogg’s simple aim? Improve…
Jake Smith – “I’m just trying to fight my own back”
There was a time where everything Jake Smith touched turned to gold. 18th in the World Half Marathon Champs in 2020. A 2:11:00 marathon as part of a pacing effort. The 2021 Big Half title. “When I first went to university and followed a really good program, I felt like I was untouchable, unstoppable. Nothing could touch me or hurt me. I think a lot of people get like that when you’re just…
Two years of hurt, Tom Mortimer seeks Olympic solution
Tom Mortimer breaks the news that once more his achilles has let him down. For two years now the Stroud AC athlete has battled against inflammation. Ten days out from the World Road Running Championships, it has afflicted him again. It’s been a testing couple of years for Mortimer. The 7:38 3000m man opened 2023 in Potchefstroom, South Africa watching on as his Loughborough teammates laid the early ground work for a championship…
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