Becky Briggs

Becky Briggs is 20, and preparing for her first marathon at the Olympic trials. She's represented Great Britain as a junior at the World Cross Country Championships and as a senior at the World Half Marathon Championships, where her personal best is 72:54.

The decision came quickly: after the World Half Marathon Championships, she learned the Olympic trial marathon would be held at Kew Gardens, and decided to use an uninterrupted training block to go for it rather than racing casually through winter.

Under new coach Geoff Watkin, she now runs two structured sessions a week instead of three — one speed-focused, one longer — alongside a weekly long run that's grown to 20 miles at 6:14 pace, and 95-100 miles a week overall, with strength and conditioning and a real focus on sleep and recovery.

On the Kew Gardens lap course, Becky's positive despite the criticism — she likes the support structure and predictability, and doesn't see the small 30-runner field as a downside. On Britain's distance running gap with East Africa, she'd rather see strength in depth across a whole cohort of competitive women than a handful of isolated stars.