Record Number of St Mary’s Athletes and Alumni Compete at World Athletics Championships

A record 12 Endurance Performance and Coaching Centre (EPACC) athletes and alumni from St Mary’s University, Twickenham are set to compete at the London 2017 World Athletics Championships.

The biannual event, which brings together the world’s leading athletics talent, will be hosted in the Olympic Stadium in London from 4^th to 13^th August.

The Championships will see St Mary’s most famous alumnus Sir Mo Farah compete in the his last global track championships. Sir Mo will be looking to complete a historic quintuple-double of World and Olympic titles in the 5000m and 10,000m events. St Mary’s celebrated his legacy and contribution to athletics earlier in 2017, naming the athletics track he trained on for ten years in his honour.

Sir Mo joins ten EPACC athletes and St Mary’s alumnus Toby Gold, who won Silver in t33 100m-wheelchair racing at the World Para Athletics Championships in July.

Rio 2016 Olympians Steph Twell, 5000m, Beth Potter, 10,000m, Lennie Waite and Rob Mullet, 3000m Steeplechase, Elliot Giles, 800m, Paul Pollock, Marathon, and Jade Lally, Discus, will all compete.

They will be joined by British Champion Adelle Tracy, who will compete in the 800m, British women’s runner-up at the London Marathon Charlotte Purdue, who will compete in the Marathon, and British Bronze Medallist Jake Wightman, who will compete in the 1500m.

Speaking ahead of the championships Director of Sport Andrew Reid-Smith said, “It’s great to see a record number of St Mary’s athletes taking part in the World Championships. These Championships will see athletes performing at the highest level and to have so many of our athletes and alumni taking part, is a great endorsement of the programme’s work over several years. 

“We have athletes excelling at every level; from university to national and global competitions you will see St Mary’s athletes winning medals and representing their country and the University with pride.”

St Mary’s has a proud history of fostering sporting talent, with 22 athletes and alumni competing at the Rio 2016 Olympics, producing a medal count that would rank the University 25^th on the medal table if it were a nation.

Ahead of London 2017 St Mary’s also hosted athletes from 13 nations for their pre championship training camp, including being team base for the Japanese Association of Athletics Federations and the Chinese Athletics Association.