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England Athletics international opportunities at marathon 2019

England Athletics are pleased to announce the 2019 England International Marathon Selection policies. Following the successful introduction of two autumn marathon opportunities in 2018 we will once again providing England representative opportunities and IAAF Gold Label standard marathon experience for English marathon runners at either Toronto or Frankfurt.

We remain committed to raising the standard of marathon running in England and have been encouraged by the positive engagement with the Marathon Programme launched last year. One of the aims of the programme is to see more men under 2:20 and more women inside 2:40 by 2022 and as such the selectors have made the decision to lower the minimum qualification standard in order to encourage more athletes to aspire to England marathon selection. Competition for places on the team will be no less competitive than previous years, however we hope that more runners will be motivated by the chance to target these standards.

As 25-year-old Hayley Carruthers demonstrated in 2018 an opportunity to represent your country can be the catalyst for significant improvement. Carruthers, who in 2018 had run 2:47:47 in the heat of London with a supporting England development standard at 10k, went on to prove the selectors faith in her when she ran an 11 minute PB in Toronto to set a life time best of 2:36:48. Carruthers has since gone on to be part of the London Marathon endurance programme to support her development as an athlete. She recently spoke at an England Athletics Road Show event about her journey over the last 12 months.

‘I can’t thank England Athletics enough for the selection in Canada. It really has opened so many doors and made such a huge positive impact to my life.’

The selection policy for the Marathon events in 2019 and other England Athletics representative opportunities are available by clicking here.