From the Mini London Marathon to the World Athletics Championships: Alumni shine on the global stage
The Mini London Marathon is the biggest free, one-day children's event in the UK, and has been inspiring youngsters to enjoy running and physical activity since 1985.
The event has been the launchpad for the careers of some of the country’s best athletes. In 2025, no fewer than 17 athletes who once raced as juniors in the Mini Marathon’s age-group championships have lined up to represent their countries in Japan, including some of the best middle and long-distance runners in the world.
Leading the way was Jake Wightman (pictured), who earned the first Team GB & NI medal of the Championships with a silver medal in the men’s 1,500m. Wightman – who took part in the Mini London Marathon in 2008 and 2009, with his best finish 21st in the U15 boys’ race in 2009 – finished just two hundredths of a second behind the winner in the final in Tokyo.
In the same race, Josh Kerr and Neil Gourley finished outside of the medals. Gourley was third in the U17 men’s race at the 2012 Mini London Marathon while Kerr, the defending World champion and Olympic silver medallist in the men’s 1,500m, was a fifth-place finisher in the 2012 boys’ race.
Georgia Hunter-Bell continued her emphatic transition from 1,500m to 800m by adding a World silver medal to her Olympic bronze, in the 1,500m, from the 2024 Paris Olympics. Hunter-Bell, who was 17th in her race at the 2010 Mini London Marathon, finished strongly to take second place by a mere one hundredth of a second – and record a personal best (PB) time of 1:54.90 – ahead of her friend and fellow Mini alumna, Keely Hodgkinson.
Hodgkinson, who was the favourite to add an 800m World title to her Olympic triumph in 2024 and double European titles in 2022 and 2024, was unable to match the speed of Kenya’s Lilian Odira on the finish straight. Hodgkinson finished 42nd in the U17 women’s race at the 2017 Mini London Marathon.
It is not only British athletes who starred in Tokyo, with Julia Paternain’s bronze medal for Uruguay in the women’s marathon earning worldwide headlines. In 2017, Paternain was also a podium finisher at the Mini London Marathon in the U17 women’s race, and a winner in the U17 race at the Vitality Westminster Mile.
There was plenty of other British interest whose journeys started at the Mini London Marathon. Other British athletes who competed in Tokyo include:
Max Burgin (men’s 800m) – Burgin, who finished 70th in the Mini London Marathon in 2015, is a double British 800m champion and a European U18 champion over the same distance. Burgin ran a PB of 1:42.29 and was in the hunt for a medal around the final bend but found himself boxed in and finished sixth in a packed field.
Emile Cairess (men’s marathon) – 11 years after finishing in 9th in the Mini London Marathon, Cairess was a third-place finisher at the 2024 TCS London Marathon. He has put together some glittering results early in his career. These include the highest finish in an Olympic marathon for more than 20 years, a European record over 10 miles (45:57) and becoming the British Champion over 10,000m. However, the heat proved too much for Cairess in Tokyo, as he was forced to pull out less than three miles from the end of the race.
Innes Fitzgerald (women’s 5,000m) – a double winner of the U17 women’s race at the Mini London Marathon in 2022 and 2023, Fitzgerald has transitioned seamlessly to senior athletics. A U20 European Cross-Country Champion in 2023 and 2024, Fitzgerald broke Zola Budd’s 40-year European U20 5,000m record in July to place fifth on the UK women’s all-time list. The 19-year-old ran in a stacked heat in Tokyo and was unable to reach her first World final.
Calli Hauger-Thackery (women’s 10,000m) – Hauger-Thackery (nee. Thackery) finished 33rd in the 2010 Mini London Marathon and has gone on to win bronze in the women’s half marathon at the 2024 European Championships and is second on the UK women’s marathon all-time list behind Paula Radcliffe. Hauger-Thackery finished 11th in the women’s 10,000m (31:37.81) in Tokyo, finishing as the third-fastest European.
Megan Keith (women’s 10,000m) – Keith, an eighth-place finisher in the Mini London Marathon in 2019, finished 10th in the 10,000m in Tokyo. Keith is also a European Championships bronze medallist over 10,000m, a European U23 champion over 5,000m and holds the record for third-fastest time ever for a female Scottish runner over 10,000m on the road.
George Mills (men’s 5,000m) – Mills, a 20th-place finisher in the 2016 Mini London Marathon, reached the final of the 5,000m but finished down the placings on Sunday evening (21 September). Having competed in the Paris Olympics last year, Mills is having a stellar 2025. A gold medallist over 3,000m in a Championship best-time at the British Indoor Athletics Championships in February was followed by silver at the European Athletics Indoor Championships over the same distance. In June, he set a new British record over 5,000m (12:46.59), toppling Sir Mo Farah’s previous best mark.
Laura Muir (women’s 1,500m) – Muir has competed at three Olympics for Great Britain, winning silver over 1,500m in Tokyo in 2021. She is also a World Championships bronze medallist over the distance, but couldn’t follow that up in 2025 as she exited during the heats. A two-time European 1,500m champion and double Commonwealth Games medallist, Muir finished 22nd in the U17 women’s race at the 2010 Mini London Marathon.
Hannah Nuttall (women’s 5,000m) – A reigning double UK champion over 5,000m and indoor champion over 3,000m, Nuttall is a three-time participant of the Mini London Marathon. In 2011 she finished 11th in the U15 girls’ race and followed that up with seventh and sixth-place finishers in the U17 women’s categories in the subsequent years. Nuttall ran a great heat in Tokyo to earn a spot in the final and closed out her campaign with a strong eighth-place finish.
Jemma Reekie (women’s 800m) – Alongside Hodgkinson and Hunter-Bell, Reekie made up the trio of female runners in the 800m in Tokyo, however she missed out on a semi-final place by three hundredths of a second. The former Olympic torchbearer for London 2012, Reekie is now a double European U23 champion and a double-Olympian who finished fourth in the 800m at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. She also fell just short of another shot at an 800m medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where she finished outside the qualifying places in the semi-final.
Sarah Tait (women’s 3,000m steeplechase) – Tait is a three-time participant of the Mini London Marathon, finishing 37th in 2015, 61st a year later and 25th in the U17 women’s race in 2018. The runner – from Fairmilehead in Scotland – set a Scottish record earlier this year in the 3,000m steeplechase, a time she has since lowered to 9:18.66 but it wasn’t to be in Japan. Tait’s efforts in Tokyo suffered a painful early blow when she withdrew from the women’s 3,000, steeplechase after an awkward landing from a water jump.
Erin Wallace (women’s 1,500m) – A European U18 and U23 bronze medallist, Wallace won the U17 women’s race at the Mini London Marathon in 2017, having finished 20th, fourth and fifth in her previous three attempts. The 2025 World Championships was the 25-year-old's senior debut at a global outdoors event, where she secured an eighth-place finish in the 1,500m heats.