24 April 2013

British Athletics today announced two athletes selected to represent the GB & NI team in the marathon at the 2013 IAAF World Championships in Moscow, Russia, in August.

Susan Partridge (coach: Steve Jones) was selected following a three minute personal best of 2:30:46 to finish as highest place British female at Sunday’s Virgin London Marathon, 14 seconds inside the ‘A’ qualifying standard for the IAAF World Championships.

Joining Partridge in Moscow will be Sonia Samuels (George Gandy), who did not run the Virgin London Marathon but holds a current ‘A’ qualifying standard of 2:30:56 from the Berlin Marathon last September.

British Athletics Head Coach Peter Eriksson said: “The performances at the weekend were very encouraging and I’m delighted to be able to select Susan Partridge and Sonia Samuels to represent GB & NI at the IAAF World Championships.

“Our endurance programme has already made a lot of progress and I’m confident that both athletes will perform well in Moscow and enable us to continue moving forwards.”

Derek Hawkins (Robert Hawkins) has decided not to run the marathon at the IAAF World Championships in order to focus on improving his track performances before returning to the marathon. Hawkins, who followed up his debut run of 2:14:04 from Frankfurt last October by finishing as first Brit in 13th place in London on Sunday with a time of 2:16:50, said:

“If I ran at the World Championships it would be my third marathon in ten months and I don’t feel that I could prepare well enough to do myself justice. My plan now is to take a break from the marathon and work on improving my 5,000m and 10,000m times, I’ll then return to the marathon when I feel ready to progress again.”

GREAT BRITAIN AND NORTHERN IRELAND TEAM:

Women

Susan Partridge (coach: Steve Jones)

Sonia Samuels (coach: George Gandy)