Outstanding Olympic marathon performance for Cairess

After a long ten days of athletics action, the true endurance test of the marathon acted as the perfect conclusion.

Men's Marathon

Up first were the men with Emile Cairess (Leeds City), Philip Sesemann (Andrew Henderson, Leeds City) and Mahamed Mahamed (Idris Hamid, Southampton) flying the flag for GB.

The course was one of the most challenging in Olympic history with some brutal hills to tackle later in the race. This didn't phase Emile Cairess, who is used to the local fells and inclines of the Yorkshire countryside. An outstanding run on a sizzling hot day saw Emile rewarded with 4th place, an agonising position outside of the medals, but a huge achievement marking the highest finish of a Brit since Athens 2004. Speaking after his race, Emile said:

“I’m really proud of myself, I’m really happy with that. I just wanted to give myself a chance. That was my thinking, just try to run as fast as I could until the end. Maybe some of them would blow up and I could catch them, but it just so happened that three of them didn’t blow up. The course was tough, it was really hard. I’ve only done two marathons. London is pretty flat, so that was way harder, with the hills it felt much longer.”

Elsewhere, Phil came home 46th in 2:13:08 and Mahamed was 11 places further back in 2:15:19.

Women's Marathon

The women's marathon was the very last athletics event of the Paris Olympic Games, and the crowds came out to celebrate and show their support, lining the 26.2 miles.

Following the withdrawal of Charlotte Purdue (Nic Bideau, Aldershot Farnham and District), Welsh athlete Clara Evans (Pontypridd Roadents AC) was called up to join Rose Harvey (Alistair Cragg, Clapham Chasers) and Calli Hauger-Thackery (Hallamshire) to race the gruelling 26.2 mile course.

Clara was the first Brit across the line in a time of 2:33.01 to finish 46th. Having picked up an injury along the route, Rose battled on to complete the race in 2:51.03. Unfortunately, their teammate Calli was unable to finish the race.

England Athletics supporting Team GB marathon athletes

Four of the athletes that competed over the marathon distance in Paris are supported by the England Athletics Senior Programme. Calli, Mahamed, Phil and Rose all receive support through the Talent Hub performance support services thanks to our joint investment with London Marathon Events and TASS.

Picture from World Athletics