Olympic marathon trials: Latecomer Steph Davis and Chris Thompson, 39, earn Tokyo spots
Chris Thompson #ChrisThompson
Unsponsored and forced to juggle her training with a job at an asset management company, Steph Davis obliterated her rivals to win Britain’s Olympic marathon trials on Friday morning and book her slot at this summer’s Tokyo Games.
Held on a bespoke behind-closed-doors looped course around London’s Kew Gardens, the trials featured only Britain’s top invited racers, with Davis proving herself a cut above her female rivals.
There was also a remarkable winner of the men’s race with 39-year-old Chris Thompson smashing his personal best to secure his Olympic place with victory an incredible 23 years after he first wore a British vest.
Part of a five-strong leading group of women at the halfway point, Davis soon kicked clear and extended her lead with only the pacemaker for the company in the final few laps, finishing in a personal best two hours, 27 minutes and 16 seconds for her spot on the plane to Tokyo.
Natasha Cockram came second in 2.30:03, with Rosie Edwards third. With Cockram and Edwards’s finishing times outside the Olympic standard, the second and third spots on the British team are likely to come from the absent trio of Jess Piasecki, Charlotte Purdue and Steph Twell, all of whom already possess the required time.
Victory capped a remarkable rise to the top of the British ranks for Davis, 30, who only started running seriously two years ago. A keen runner in her youth, she scarcely competed in her early adult years, before entering a new phase in her athletics life when she moved from her native Scotland to London.
Working for a financial advisor company, she does not have the luxury of going overseas for altitude training stints, and instead combines morning and evening running training with swimming sessions and cycling to work every day.
Thompson was a hugely emotional winner of the men’s race. The European 10,000m silver medallist all the way back in 2010 ran an astonishing race round Kew Gardens, ignoring all others and flying solo throughout after making the early decision to let his rivals battle it out in a leading pack ahead of him.
When they started to falter soon after 30km, he quickly pounced, rapidly reducing a 30-second deficit to pick off the leaders, before swiftly passing them and kicking for home.
Seven years after his previous marathon personal best, Thompson finished in 2.10:50 to secure a spot at his second Olympics. The first came in 2012 when he believed he was in medal shape only for a freak injury to strike a couple of months out from the London Games when he broke a bone in his back and could only finish 25th.
Ben Connor, who already had the Olympic standard, finished second behind Thompson in 2.12:06 to confirm his place for Tokyo, with the absent Callum Hawkins already pre-selected for Britain’s third and final Olympic spot.
There was a surprise winner of the men’s 20km race walk with multiple British record holder and Commonwealth silver medallist Tom Bosworth beaten by Callum Wilkinson, whose winning time of 1.22:47 was not fast enough to secure his Olympic spot.
“I’ve missed the last month of training so I was really worried about even completing the distance,” said Bosworth, who already possessed the Olympic qualifying standard. “I had a problem in my lower back and down my right hamstring. It became very uncomfortable to walk.
“For me, it wasn’t really a race – it was about managing to just finish second and thankfully I was able to do that. If I can get back in the shape I was this time last year, I honestly believed I was in [Olympic] medal shape then. Two months, or even less than that, I can turn this around.”
Wilkinson, who triumphed by more than three minutes, said he was “gutted and embarrassed” with his time despite the win.
Heather Lewis won the women’s race in 1.35:44 after leader Gemma Bridge was disqualified around halfway.
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