Virgin London Marathon – Mini London Marathon Preview: Young runners set to follow in Farah’s footsteps

Over the years the Virgin Money Giving Mini London Marathon has unearthed a number of British athletics stars including Mo Farah, Scott Overall, David Weir and Shelly Woods – and this year will be no different.

The event – which is the official British Athletics road championships for young athletes aged between 11 and 17 – is three miles long, stretching from London's Old Billingsgate to The Mall. It's open to entrants from the nine regions of England, plus Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales, and includes teams from all 33 London Boroughs.

Like last year, the girls' and boys' under-17 races look set to be the most competitive on the 2014 programme.   

In the absence of 2013 winner Bobby Clay (South East), UK Inter Counties cross country champion Harriet Knowles-Jones (North West), the under-15 winner 12 months ago, will battle it out against National cross country champion and Inter Counties runner-up Lydia Turner (North East).

The Warrington athlete has hit a rich vein of form of late, backing up her Inter Counties win with victories in the English Schools and the SIAB Schools International, and will be favourite to take her second successive Mini London Marathon title.

A similar race could play out in the under-17 boys' event as UK Inter Counties champion Jordan Rowe lines up against national cross champion Zak Miller (North West), last year's runner up in this age group.

The pair have duelled on several occasions of late, most recently finishing fourth and second respectively at the English Schools.

There will be a high standard in the boys' under-17 category as the top five finishers at the UK Inter Counties will all toe the line at Old Billingsgate.

Inter Counties runner-up Isaac Ackers (East Midlands) and English national runner-up Markim Lonsdale (East Midlands) will be ones to watch in the boys' under-15 category alongside South East's Alastair Kinloch, the Kent schools and Kent county champion who finished third at the Inter Counties in Birmingham last month.

 

 Mo Farah, three time Virgin Money
Giving Mini London Marathon winner

The impressive Sabrina Sinha (Greenwich), the London Boroughs champion for the third year running in 2013, is the stand-out competitor in the under-15 girls' event having won both National and Inter County titles earlier this year. She'll be up against fierce rivals Niamh Brown and Grace Goddard (both South East) who have also been in the mix at each of those events.

Inter Counties champion Zak Mahamed (South East) – brother of Mahamed Mahamed in the under-17 event – leads the charge in the under-13 boys' race, while in the under-13 girls' event Laura McNab (South West) will be one to watch.

Former champions provide huge inspiration for these young athletes, and Mo Farah – who was crowned double Olympic champion over 5000m and 10,000m at London 2012 and makes his full marathon this weekend – won the Mini Marathon for three successive years between 1998 and 2000.

Similarly, 2012 Paralympian Jade Jones will also make her full marathon debut this weekend after securing her third successive Mini Marathon wheelchair title last year, breaking the course record in the process.

The success of Jones, as well as former Mini Marathon athlete Shelly Woods, now a two-time London Marathon champion over the full 26.2 miles, has prompted a resurgence in British wheelchair racing This year the organisers welcome the biggest ever entry of young female wheelchair racers which can be attributed in part to the development work being done across the country, notably by Job King in Coventry and David Weir and his coach Jenny Archer in London through the WeirArcher Academy.

In the wheelchair under-17s event Ben Rowlings and Isaac Towers will go head to head for the first time. Both athletes are funded as part of British Athletics World Class Performance Programme (WCPP) based on their future potential to win medals at IPC Athletics World Championships and Paralympic Games.

This will be Rowlings' fourth Mini Marathon – he was third in the under-17s boys' race in 2013 – while Towers steps up into the under-17 age group for the first time after winning the under-14 event 12 months ago in a course record.

Lauren Rowles will be favourite to take the girls' title after finishing third last year behind Jade Jones and Sammi Kinghorn.

In the under-14 age group, Coventry Godiva's Kare Adenegan will be tough to beat. She was inspired by watching former Mini Marathon champion and now world record holder Hannah Cockcroft win two gold medals at the London 2012 Paralympic Games.

The multiple England Athletics champion was second last year behind course record holder Charlotte Moore, but the 13-year-old, who has cerebral palsy, has already shown great promise in her short career to date.

The Virgin Money Giving Mini London Marathon races will be started by London 2012 Olympic diver Tom Daley. The races start at 08:40 with the under-17 girls' wheelchair event and the programme concludes with the under-13 girls' race at 09:30.

 

Source: Virgin London Marathon