2 October 2015 

The 2015 Cardiff Half Marathon will see a host of Britain’s finest road runners competing for the British Half Marathon Championship title on Sunday 4 October. The race also incorporates the trials for the 2016 IAAF/Cardiff University Half Marathon Championships which are to be held in the city next March.

Newly crowned World Mountain Running Championship silver medallist Emily Collinge will compete to the women’s race as she returns to Wales for the first time since her medal winning exploits in Betws-y-Coed last month. She was also part of the gold medal winning senior women’s team and will be seeking similar success on the road this weekend.

There will be a fascinating encounter with three debutants taking on the half marathon distance and aiming for domestic glory on the South Wales coast. 2012 European U23 cross country champion Jess Coulson (Mick Woods) will line-up alongside Lauren Deadman (Bill Foster), who has set personal bests over 3000m and 5000m on the track as well as 10km on the road in 2015. Faye Fullerton (Georgina Fullerton) will also make her maiden appearance over the distance with the experienced Michelle Ross-Cope (Bud Baldaro) another one to watch out for.

The men’s race will see a host of British athletes targeting the domestic title and looking to earn a spot on the GB & NI team for the IAAF World Half Marathon on 26 March next year. Ian Kimpton (Tony Simmons) has been in fine form in 2015, lowering his PB in the half marathon to 64.30 in Reading earlier this year. He will be one of the favourites to take the British title alongside Welshman Dewi Griffiths (Kevin Evans) who will be well supported by the home crowd. 

2014 British half marathon champion Ryan McLeod will return to Cardiff looking to defend his title. Others to watch out for include Jonny Hay (Woods) and Paul Martelleti (Nick Anderson).

The 13.1 mile route will also play host to the fifth leg in the six-stage runbritain Grand Prix series with important points up for grabs in the race. With current leaders John Beattie and Liz Hartney not running this weekend, a handful of athletes will be aiming to shorten their leads in the standings ahead of the final event at the Leeds Abbey Dash 10km on November 15.

For more details about the Cardiff half marathon, follow the link: http://www.cardiffhalfmarathon.co.uk/

For the current standings in the runbritain Grand Prix, visit the website here: http://www.runbritainrankings.com/grandprix/standings.aspx