Great Britain’s Calli Thackery made an exceptional marathon debut at the McKirdy Micro Marathon in New York on Saturday (14).
Fresh from a seventh-place finish at the World Half Marathon Championships in Riga where she was the top European finisher, Thackery made a winning debut to her marathon career, crossing the finish-line in 2:22:17.
Thackery’s time was the third fastest debut by a European athlete after Sifan Hassan (2:18:33) and Paula Radcliffe (2:18:56) and she moves to equal second on the British all-time list. It was also comfortably inside the Olympic qualifying time of 2:26:50.
"Thanks for all the good luck messages and all the support, it means more than you know. I will get around to responding to everyone, but for now I’m soaking this all in," said Thackery on her Instagram page.
In the men’s race, Estonia’s Tiidrek Nurme finished second in 2:13:28.
Luijten clocks 2:26:34 in the Amsterdam Marathon
In the Amsterdam Marathon on Sunday (15), Anne Luijten made a big improvement at the distance and put herself in contention for a slot on the Dutch team for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Overcoming a sore throat and a sore knee, Luitjen broke the 2:30-barrier for the first time in her career, finishing tenth in 2:26:34 - some 16 seconds inside the qualifying time for Paris 2024.
For Luijten, her performance had additional poignancy as her father - who is terminally ill - could witness this moment. "I'm glad he experienced this. He will probably not be there next year in Paris," said Luijten, as quoted by NOS.
Khalid Choukoud finished ninth in the men’s race in a lifetime best of 2:08:36 while Samuel Tsegay was eleventh in a Swedish record of 2:08:41.