Commonwealth Half Marathon Team announced

England Athletics are pleased to announce full teams for the inaugural Commonwealth Half-Marathon Championships which take place in Cardiff on Sunday 7th October.

Twenty-six of the Commonwealth Nations have expressed interest in bringing teams to Cardiff, which makes for a highly anticipated and hard-fought competition. England Athletics are pleased to be entering competitive teams in both the men’s and women’s races with five athletes from the selected eight, who competed for Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the IAAF World Half-Marathon Championships back in March. The men’s and women’s races which will be scored separately with the finishing times of the first three runners in each team being aggregated for an overall team time and position.

The England Men’s Team includes:

• Ben Connor (club: Derby AC, coach: Steve Vernon) set a personal best of 61:11 back in February on the streets of Barcelona and finished 64th in Valencia. Connor will turn his attention to the half-marathon distance for England following his GB representation at 5000 at the European Track & Field Championships in August.
• Mohamud Aaden (club: Thames Valley Harriers, coach: Paul Oppe) only gained his first representative international vest for England back in February running in the Granollers Half-Marathon. This performance saw him return to Spain a few weeks later as part of the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team where he finished the highest placed British athlete in 36th in a personal best of 62:34.
• Daniel Studley (club: Bristol & West AC, coach: Alex Hains) was another athlete to set a personal best on the roads of Spain with a best of 64:23 from Barcelona which earned him a place on the team In Valencia. He will be hoping to replicate his form from Barcelona on the streets of Cardiff.
• Matthew Clowes (club: Cardiff AC, coach: self-coached) who lives and works in Cardiff will be running in familiar surrounds when he hits the streets of the Welsh capital in October. He set a personal best in Granollers in February of 64:39 and ran close to that time in Swansea in June in a British heatwave.

A strong and experienced women’s team will join the men in Cardiff.

• Tracy Barlow (club: Thames Valley Harriers, coach: Nick Anderson). Marathon specialist Barlow set her half-marathon personal best in Valencia in March where she clocked 72:35 and will no doubt be looking to put in a similar performance in Cardiff.
• Gemma Steel (club: Charnwood AC, coach: Liz Nuttall). Steel’s record on the roads and the half-marathon distance in particular speaks for itself with a world class personal best of 68:13 set back in 2014. With a more recent best 72:37 Steel brings a wealth of road racing experience to the team.
• Rebecca Murray (club: Bedford & County AC, coach: Alex Stanton). 23 year old Murray who clocked 2:39:37 in her debut marathon in the extreme heat of London in April and clocked a season’s best of 73:59 at the half earlier in March is an exciting prospect on the roads.
• Dani Nimmock (club: City of Norwich AC, coach: Pauline Ash). Nimmock who turned her attention to the longer distances on the roads just a couple of years back is beginning to enjoy great success and with a best of 2:38:22 at the marathon and 74:13 at the Half. She will be looking to show good form in Cardiff as she prepares for the Frankfurt marathon at the end of October.

Team Leader Charlotte Fisher said “We’ve got a great team for Cardiff and it’s an exciting opportunity for athletes to compete in this inaugural Commonwealth Half-Marathon in surroundings and conditions that will be very familiar to them. I am looking forward to seeing how they all perform in what I am sure will be a great weekend of road racing.”