The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Marathon effort as Pavey sets sights on GB team place
Five-time Olympian Jo Pavey insists she wants to be at the World Championships to win medals – not just pick up her 2007 bronze.
The 43-year-old is aiming to secure a spot in the British squad tomorrow when she competes in her second London Marathon.
Pavey is returning to marathon running for the first time in six years and will seal a spot on the GB team for London’s World Championships in August if she finishes as a top-two Brit and runs the qualifying time of two hours 36 minutes.
However, she is guaranteed to be at the Olympic Stadium in the summer to collect her 10,000m bronze from the 2007 World Championships in Osaka.
Pavey was promoted from fourth to third last month after Elvan Abeylegesse was stripped of silver following a retrospective failed doping test.
“I’m honoured to finally receive it, it’ll be really special. It’s bittersweet having missed it 10 years ago,” she said.
“It should have been a day of being proud but I was lying on the track at the end feeling frustrated, disappointed and that I’d let friends and family down. “It will make up for it a great deal.” With Callum Hawkins (Kilbarchan) already selected for this August’s World Championships, the battle is on for Britain’s best marathon runners to fill the remaining places in Team GB.
Hawkins ran a superb personal best at London last year to book his Rio berth and was followed home by the surprise of the day, Tsegai Tewelde, who clocked 2:12:23 on his debut.
The Shettleston-based athlete won’t be able to sneak under the radar this year when he will be expected to take one of the two remaining slots in the men’s contest.
Former European 10,000m silver medallist Chris Thompson and London 2012 Olympian Scott Overall are most likely to challenge him for the honour of being first Briton home.
Fife AC’s Andrew Lemoncello last finished a marathon in 2015, winning the Las Vegas event.
The Flagstaff-based athlete is optimistic, however, that he can better his personal best of 2:13.40 when he placed eighth in London, the leading UK athlete.
A time of 65 minutes and 48 seconds when finishing sixth at last October’s Glasgow Half marathon has been the spur to upping the mileage over the Arizona trails this winter.
There are Seven World Para Athletics Marathon World Cup races for wheelchair and ambulant athletes in London, with Fife AC Rio Paralympian Derek Rae featuring.
The Kirkcaldy athlete took four minutes from his personal best to finish fifth at the 2015 World Championships, and last year set an unofficial British record when he was fifth in 2:37.28.