Connor beats the Olympic standard in London
A LUNG-BURSTING effort from Ben Connor landed him an Olympic qualifying time in his first marathon at the weekend.
The former Derby AC middle-distance and cross country star, now a full-fledged GB international, had targeted the London Marathon for his step-up to the marathon distance.
And he cracked his target – just – beating the qualifying standard by 10 seconds as he finished in two hours, 11 minutes and 20 seconds.
He was 15th overall and took the British Marathon Championship silver medal behind Jonathan Mellor, who was two places ahead of him in 2.10.38.
Both had been paced until the last 10km by Sir Mo Farah, with whom Connor had been training in France ahead of the race.
Mellor and Connor remained stride for stride until the last lap, before Liverpool Harrier Mellor, one of the few in the field to have already run a marathon this year, pulled away.
The marathon was originally to have been in its normal slot, in April, and Connor, along with all the other competitors, had to reschedule his training for the rescheduled event.
Sunday’s race was held over 19 laps of a 2.15km loop around St James’s Park, without spectators and restricted to elite athletes, although still with the traditional finish along The Mall.
Thousands more amateur runners completed the distance at the same time in their home towns.
“That hurt – a lot!” Connor tweeted after he had recovered from a race run in gloomy, wet conditions. “Olympic qualifier and British silver medal – think it’s time for a few beers.”
Before the race, he admitted to mixed feelings about the circumstances for his marathon debut.
“I was really excited to be making my debut in April (before the postponement) because the London Marathon is where I always wanted to make my debut, in my home marathon,” he told Athletics Weekly.
“It’s weird but it will be the first major road event to go ahead since the pandemic so I think it will have a lot of interest.
“Hopefully, we never have to do another one in these circumstances so it will be a one-off.”
There is no guarantee that the time will get him to next year’s postponed Tokyo Olympics, assuming they go ahead, but the time was what he needed first.
“We still don’t know what the selection policy is in terms of getting to the Games next year,” he said.
“I presume there is going to be a trial race next year but we just need to get the time first and then go into a trial with the time in the bag.
“The ‘A’ goal is the qualifying time and then it’s a bonus if I win or get a medal in the British race.”
Connor coaches himself these days after starting out with Derby AC and developing his running under coach Ray Treacy while at Providence College in the United States, then with Steve Vernon in Manchester.
Connor and his girlfriend, Lily Partridge, also a long-distance runner, enjoyed their time in France with Farah and others.
“It was nice to be running with that calibre of athlete and keeping up with them, if you like, because we got shifting on a few of the long runs,” said Connor.
“It gave me a lot of confidence, knowing what pace we were running and the athletes we were running with, especially with it being at altitude and running at that kind of pace, I knew I was getting to be in really good shape.”
The only downside for him on the day was that Partridge could not make it a qualifying double, as she had trouble with her hamstrings and calves and pulled out of the women’s race at the 20-mile mark.
The men’s race was won by Ethiopian Tola Shura Kitata in 2.05.41, surprisingly ending the successful run of Kenyan Eliud Kipchoge, who had won the last four London events and was unbeaten over the distance in seven years.
Kipchoge slipped off the pace at around 22 miles, with a group of seven leaving him behind, and finished eighth, the first eight places all going to Ethiopian and Kenyan runners before Norway’s Sondre Nordstad Moen in ninth.