London-based Scottish runner seals selection for Olympic marathon with strong performance at Kew Gardens

The women’s race at the British Olympic marathon trials promised to be the distance-running domestic dust-up of the year. Some big-name withdrawals on the eve of the event diluted the quality, but it was still oozing with class. Yet Steph Davis emerged an emphatic winner as she blew her rivals away in the second half of the race.

Going from strength to strength, the relative rookie to the world of marathon running clocked another PB of 2:27:16 on Friday (March 26) as she stormed to a convincing victory. In second, Natasha Cockram narrowly missed the Olympic qualifying time of 2:29:30 with 2:30:03.

It was a frustrating result for the Welsh runner but it will be a relief to Olympic hopes like Charlotte Purdue and Jess Piasecki, who have both run 2:25 in the past 18 months but missed the trials due to injuries.

Davis, 30, works part-time for an asset management company and amazingly has yet to find a shoe sponsor. She only began to take marathon running seriously three years ago, too, but is going from strength to strength with every race.

“Anything can happen in the marathon,” she said, “you can’t just know that this is going to be your day. I felt good out there, particularly during the second half, so a big thanks to Josh the pacer for continuing on that was a huge help, especially down this straight, as it was a bit more windy.

“I really noticed that on the last lap when I was on my own. It was an amazing event today, flat course, the corners were fine and I am really happy to take the win and secure that spot and a small PB.”

Her debut at 26.2 miles came in Berlin in 2018 when she ran 2:41:16. This was followed in April 2019 with 2:32:38 off the mass start in London before another improvement – to 2:27:40 in Valencia in December – elevated her to the top 10 on the UK all-time rankings.

She took part in athletics as a youngster, racing in cross country and some 800m races, and later ran for the University of Edinburgh, but her social life was just as important as her running and she only began to take the latter seriously when she moved to London and joined Clapham Chasers.

Davis then met her coach, Phil Kissi, with the Berlin Marathon being their first race working together. Unusually, she runs fairly low mileage but complements it with plenty of cross-training. She believes working out on an elliptical machine is the most effective because it mimics the running action but during lockdown she has done more cycling on a bike at home, whereas she will often try to swim on her recovery day each week.

The training regimen worked on the paths of Kew Gardens as she always looked comfortable before breaking clear of her rivals about 90 minutes into the race.

The women started at 8am along with the men and the leaders went through 5km in 17:38. Pacemakers Kevin Quinn and Josh Grace set the tempo with youngster Becky Briggs running aggressively behind them and most of the leading contenders well placed.

Cockram tucked in behind with Davis, Lily Partridge, Sarah Inglis and debutante Charlotte Arter all prominent as the runners passed 10km in 35:11.

At halfway the main contenders were still locked in combat as they clocked 74:05 – well inside the Tokyo qualifying standard pace. Briggs was now slightly detached but there was still all to play for.

The tension did not last too long, though. At around 25km, or coming up to 90 minutes of racing, Davis broke clear and was suddenly on her own behind the two pacemakers as Cockram, Partridge and Arter battled behind a few metres down the road.

As Davis pulled further away, however, her chasers struggled. Cockram held on for second place but was almost three minutes behind at the finish.

Partridge and Arter eventually dropped out as the unheralded Rosie Edwards stormed through to take third place in 2:31:56.

One place behind, Becs Gentry justified her place on the start line with a five-minute-plus PB of 2:32:01. The Peloton celebrity trainer has more than 90,000 followers on Instagram and some wondered how she had got an Olympic trials entry, but she showed she could mix it with Britain’s best as she took a fine fourth place.

Along with the cross-training that Davis relies on, the women’s race was further proof that distance running definitely benefits from supplementary work done on a bike or stationary indoor machine.

Clara Evans was next in fifth place followed by Inglis, Naomi Mitchell and Briggs, the latter battling gallantly to finish in 2:38:58 after her feisty early kilometres.