Running News Daily

Chris Thompson and Lily Partridge lead the British team for World Athletics Half Marathon Championships Gdynia 2020

Thompson was a shade outside his personal best as he took the British title at Sunday’s Vitality Big Half in 1:01:07, finishing second to Kenenisa Bekele having disputed the lead for the first five miles, and the 38-year-old Briton earns his first British vest on the road, 22 years after making his track debut at the World U20 Championships.

Fresh from lowering the British Under-23 record for the half marathon to 1:02:00 in London, Jake Smith will also represent Great Britain & Northern Ireland on the roads for the first time, having made his British track debut at last year’s European Under-23 Championships in Gävle, Sweden.

Having finished as the third and fourth British athletes home at the trial, both Ross Millington and Mohamud Aadan declined selection for the championship.

With the selection policy stating that automatic selection can be offered to the next eligible athlete if declined by auto-qualifiers, 2017 British Marathon gold medalist Josh Griffiths earns his first British vest in almost three years courtesy of his eighth-place showing at the trials.

Doha team member Ben Connor, who has already clocked 1:01:34 for the distance in 2020, will look to improve on his individual 64th place finish at the 2018 edition of the championships in Valencia, while Matt Leach, who has twice run for Britain in the European 10,000m Cup, completes the senior men’s team.

On the women’s side, Partridge earns her first British vest since the 2018 European Championships in Berlin and will look to better her 1:10:31 personal best clocking, set in 2015, when she takes to the start line in Poland. Sarah Inglis, who moved to 13th on the all-time British list with a strong run in Houston in January, also gains selection.

British debuts are handed to Samantha Harrison and Stephanie Davis, who clocked respective personal bests of 1:11:01 and 1:11:15 for second and third-place finishes at the Big Half, with fourth place finisher, Hayley Carruthers, also earning her first British vest.