Jack Rowe will be aiming to draw level in the history books with Sir Mo Farah by winning The Big Half, London’s premier half marathon, for a third time on Sunday 7 September.
Sir Mo currently holds the record for the non-disabled male with the greatest number of victories in The Big Half, with the three wins he chalked up in 2018, 2019 and 2022. But a win for Rowe this year will see him equal Sir Mo’s feat and will also make him the first athlete to win the event in three successive years.
David Weir, who also has a trio of The Big Half victories to his name (2019, 2022 and 2023), leads the elite men’s wheelchair entries where he will be up against defending champion Johnboy Smith.
There is a stacked field in the elite women’s race including Charlotte Purdue who, like Weir and Sir Mo, is a three-time champion of The Big Half (2018, 2019, 2021), plus two of the fastest female British half marathoners of all time: Jess Warner-Judd and Samantha Harrison.
Warner-Judd, who has represented Great Britain at three World Championships and the 2021 Olympic Games, is the fourth fastest Brit over the half marathon distance with a personal best (PB) of 67:06, while Harrison - who finished ninth in the half marathon at the last World Athletics Road Running Championships in 2023 - has a PB of 67:08 that places her fifth on the British all-time list.
For Warner-Judd, the race will be a warm-up for her marathon debut which will come at the 2025 TCS New York City Marathon on Sunday 2 November.
Other leading names in the elite women’s race include Rose Harvey and Clara Evans-Graham, who both competed in the marathon at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games for Great Britain, and Abbie Donnelly, who was sixth over the half marathon distance at last year’s European Athletics Championships and won this year’s GetPRO Bath Half Marathon.
In the elite women’s wheelchair race, 2024 Boston Marathon champion Eden Rainbow-Cooper, who won The Big Half in 2022, will face a strong domestic field that includes Jade Jones-Hall, who was sixth at this year’s TCS London Marathon.
The elite races are part of The Big Half community running festival which has 25,000 people registered to take part across three mass participation events: The Big Half, the UK’s most diverse half marathon, The New Balance Big Relay, which enables teams to tackle the half marathon distance and The Big Mile for children and families.
2025 The Big Half elite men’s entry list
- Jack Rowe (Aldershot, Farnham & District AC, PB 61:08)
- Paulos Surafel (Thames Valley Harriers, PB 61:21)
- Dewi Griffiths (Swansea Harriers AC, PB 61:33)
- Adam Clarke (Aldershot, Farnham & District AC, PB 61:54)
- Mohamud Aadan (Thames Valley Harriers, PB 62:28)
- Ollie Lockley (Leeds City, PB 63:01)
- Weynay Ghebresilasie (Shettleston, PB 63:39)
- Jonathan Davies (Reading AC, PB 63:44)
- Tewelde Menges (Medway & Maidstone, PB 63:49)
- Alex Milne (Hercules Wimbledon, PB 64:51)
- Cole Gibbens (Tonbridge AC, PB 65:00)
- Jonathan Cornish (Hercules Wimbledon, PB 65:05)
Elite women’s entry list
- Jessica Warner-Judd (Blackburn, PB 67:06)
- Samantha Harrison (Mansfield, PB 67:08)
- Charlotte Purdue (Aldershot, Farnham & District AC, PB 68:02)
- Clara Evans-Graham (Pontypridd, PB 69:00)
- Abbie Donnelly (Lincoln Wellington, PB 69:05)
- Rose Harvey (Clapham Chasers, PB 70:02)
- Tessa McCormick (Vale Royal, PB 72:13)
- Heather Townsend (Leeds City, PB 73:21)
Elite men’s wheelchair entry list
- David Weir
- Johnboy Smith
- Michael McCabe
- Josh Hickinbottom
- Xander Foster
- Sam Kolek
- Liam Coffill
Elite women’s wheelchair entry list
- Claudia Burrough
- Jade Jones-Hall
- Joanna Robertson
- Eden Rainbow-Cooper
- Lauren Rowles
- Rosie Delap
- Shanua Bocquet