32 British endurance athletes have been offered funding by London Marathon Events Ltd, the organisers of the Virgin Money London Marathon to support them through 2019.
The organisers have pledged a total of £350,000 in support, with £180,000 going towards British Athletics for their World Class Programme and towards high aptitude training camps.
£70,000 will also be offered to athletes who are not on the world class programme such as Charlotte Purdue, Emelia Gorecka and Ben Connor, while £100,000 will support the work of the Endurance Performance and Coaching Centre at St Mary’s University in Twickenham.
The fund covers a wide span of endurance athletes from middle distance runners such as Chris O’Hare and Alexandra Bell to marathon runners Charlotte Purdue, Tracy Barlow and more recently Steph Twell.
Steeplechasers Zak Seddon and Aimee Pratt also make the list along with US-based Jamaine Coleman.
The full list of athletes is as follows:
Mohamud Aadan, Charlotte Arter, Tracy Barlow, Alex Bell, Philippa Bowden, Kieran Clements, Natasha Cockram, Jamaine Coleman, Ben Connor, Ellis Cross, Jonny Davies, Tom Farrell, Emelia Gorecka, Neil Gourley, Jess Judd, Ross Millington, Tom Mortimer, Amy-Eloise Neale, Aimee Pratt, Charlotte Purdue, Marc Scott, Zak Seddon, Charlotte Taylor, Andy Vernon, Katrina Wootton and Alice Wright.
“One of Chris Brasher and John Disley’s founding principles when they created the London Marathon back in 1981 was to improve the standard of British endurance running – and this commitment remains as strong today,” said Hugh Brasher, Event Director of London Marathon Events.
“We want to see British endurance athletes challenging the very best runners in the world in the very best races in the world – including the Virgin Money London Marathon – and the support we gave Mo Farah through his university days and beyond has shown how our funding programmes can help athletes get closer to this goal.
“We are proud to do our part to support British endurance athletes and look forward to a future British winner of the world’s most popular marathon.”
