British runners Purdue and Hawkins rewarded for performances in London but Mo Farah declines World Champs spot at 26.2 miles

Charlotte Purdue and Callum Hawkins are among half a dozen British endurance runners selected for the IAAF World Championships in Doha.

British Athletics has named Purdue and Hawkins along with Tish Jones and Dewi Griffiths in its marathon team for the big event from September 27 to October 6, while Cameron Corbishley and Dominic King are picked to compete in the 50km race walks.

Mo Farah has declined selection for the marathon, however, increasing speculation that he will target the 10,000m in Doha or perhaps an autumn big-city marathon instead such as Berlin, New York City or Chicago – the latter of which he won last year.

Like Farah, Steph Twell was also eligible for selection after her 2:30:11 marathon debut in December, but she also declined selection.

Purdue and Hawkins both went No.3 on the UK all-time rankings on Sunday at the Virgin Money London Marathon. Purdue clocked 2:25:38 while Hawkins ran 2:08:14 to also break Allister Hutton’s long-standing Scottish record.

Griffiths clocked 2:11:46 in London in only his second marathon while Jones ran 2:31:00 in the women’s race.

Hawkins and Purdue also both ran for Britain in the IAAF World Championships in London two years ago – with the Scottish runner fourth in the men’s race and Purdue 13th in the women’s race.

In the race walks, Corbishley clocked the second quickest 50km time ever by a British athlete of 3:53:20 in Slovakia recently confirm his place while King was also inside the qualifying standard with 3:56:35 in the same race.

On welcoming the first selections for Doha, British Athletics performance director Neil Black said: “Each of the six athletes selected have performed extremely well to confirm their places in Doha, many setting personal bests and establishing themselves among the UK’s best all-time in their events.

“The IAAF World Championships in Doha are a very important marker ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and we look forward to being as competitive as possible in both events.”