The six marathon runners selected for Team GB’s squad for Paris 2024, starting 26 July, are all debutants, and each have quite the story to tell.
Charlotte Purdue is a former ballet dancer turned runner who secured the Olympic standard time with two hours 22 minutes and 17 seconds at the 2023 Berlin Marathon to take her joint second on the British all-time list behind former women’s marathon record holder, Paula Radcliffe.
Calli Hauger-Thackery is the other half of that record-equalling British time in the women’s marathon, securing the mark in her debut in October 2023, to also claim an Olympic spot in Paris. Only athletics icons Sifan Hassan (Netherlands) and Radcliffe achieved faster times by a European woman on their debut.
Emile Cairess matches the feat of the second-fastest British marathoner of all time, this time in the men’s edition, behind the two-time double Olympic champion in the 5,000m and 10,000m, Mo Farah. At his marathon debut in London in 2023, Cairess overtook Farah, finishing sixth. A year later, Cairess finished in 2:06:46 to qualify for Paris.
This trio of athletes have quite the back stories themselves, but it is to their three teammates we turn our attention, starting with former lawyer, Rose Harvey.
