Marathon trio are the first athletes to be named in the British athletics team for Paris

Charlotte Purdue, Calli Hauger-Thackery and Phil Sesemann have been named in the first wave of Olympic marathon selections for the British team ahead of the Paris Games.

There is no definite spot in the squad yet for Emile Cairess, though, despite him running 2:08:07 on his marathon debut in London last year and having shown great form with a 60:01 half-marathon on Sunday despite running with a broken hand.

If Cairess wants to run in Paris in August, he will now need to confirm his ability in this years TCS London Marathon on April 21 alongside other probable contenders like Marc Scott.

Sesemann has been rewarded for beating the qualifying mark of 2:08:10 by six seconds in the Seville Marathon earlier this month. It is, he says, a dream come true.

Ive already done more than I thought I was capable of, Sesemann told AW after Seville. Years ago I wrote I wanted a GB vest and Blackheath & Bromley 1500m record and maybe a sub 2:20 marathon one day. I never got the club record but I got the GB vest and that was more than I thought I would achieve.

So to get an Olympic marathon time and a good place on the all-time rankings, Im pretty pleased with how well things have gone and excited to see how much further I can push things.

Purdue and Hauger-Thackery have been rewarded for both clocking 2:22:17 at separate marathons toward the end of last year. Purdue secured her time in Berlin whereas Hauger-Thackery ran her mark in a minor marathon event in New York.

The selection will be particularly sweet for Purdue after she was controversially overlooked for the Tokyo Olympics and said at the time she felt she was thrown under a bus by selectors.

To complete the British womens team in Paris, we now look set for a shoot-out in London between contenders such as Rose Harvey, Clara Evans, Natasha Wilson, Jess Piasecki, Lily Partridge and Sam Harrison.

All three athletes are set to compete at their first Olympic Games having represented their country at global and continental Championships previously.

The athletes are among the first members of the Team GB athletics squad to be announced.