Leather earns sponsorship
Ellie Leather’s superb summer track season may be over, but 2022 has taken yet another turn for the better – with an announcement of an exciting sponsorship deal.
The 23-year-old, whose family home is in Combe Down, broke the news while on holiday back in Bath from her base in America, where she has just graduated from Cincinnati University.
Such has been Leather’s impact Stateside that she has been signed up to a sponsorship deal with global sports company Under Armour, whose American HQ is in the Maryland city of Baltimore.
“I am incredibly excited to officially announce that I am now a professional runner for Under Armour,” said Leather.
“I will be a member of the new Baltimore-based mission run group and even better, I will continue to train under the guidance of my collegiate coach Lara Rogers.
“That [I will be] starting my dream job with Lara and Grady alongside me, two of the most special people in my life the last three years, seems pretty perfect to me. Women leading in sport at the highest level is a powerful thing and a trend I hope continues.”
The UA deal is a reward for a tremendous year in which the 23-yearold Yate & District/westbury Harrier improved her personal bests over 800m (2mins 5.32secs), 1,500m (4:11.33), mile (4:34.89), 3,000m (9:30.10) and 5,000m (16:23.43).
But it is the 1,500m in which she has enjoyed the biggest impact. As a student at Cincinnati University, she reached the finals of the prestigious NCAA D1 Championships, finishing 11th and when she came back to England qualified for the finals of the UK Championships having won her heat in impressive style. She placed eighth in a very strong final.
Her best time has also put her 16th in the UK Rankings and second in the South West behind Poole international Melissa Courtney-bryant, who is representing Wales at the Commonwealth Games.
Now that Leather will be able to focus all her energies on her athletics career, one can only hope that 2023 will see her break through into that sub 4mins 10secs group of women to put her firmly in contention for international honours.
“Years on years of hard work and having my heart set on making this a reality it’s a special moment and I can’t wait for the next steps in my career,” added Leather, who first started competing for Westbury harriers in the under-11 age group.
“Thank you to everyone involved for believing in me and giving me this amazing new home. UA have some really exciting things in the works and I’m so ready to be part of it all.”
■ WILL Bray was Team Bath AC’S leading runner at the recent Bristol & West South West 5k PB Series at the Odd Down cycle racing track.
Bray clocked a time of 15mins 46secs to finish eighth while Pete Grist continued to edge towards his long standing PB with 15:51.
Phil King matched his M50 first place at the Yeovilton 5k event and Ben Holding recorded 17:52 to place third in the over-45 age group.
Heather Fell was fifth woman and first over-35.
■ ROBIN Lewis successfully completed the Lakeland 50 miles race in damp and humid conditions in a time of 12:12:19.
■ TEAM Bath’s British and English Schools’ steeplechase medallist Dylan Stoneman ran a PB of 4mins 12.73secs for the flat 1,500m at the British Milers Club regional meeting at the Exeter Arena last week.
Stoneman’s previous best was 4:38.0 set three years ago, since then he hadn’t tackled the distance – unless with barriers and water jumps in the way.
■ RACING a mile at the Cheltenham & County Harriers Midsummer Open meeting, Team Bath’s under-15 runner Jacob Sanchez-fulton clocked 5mins 31.91secs.
■ The athletics coverage in the Chron is sponsored by Running Bath