Welsh record-holder finishes 46th in 2:33:01 after getting Team GB call-up just one week earlier
Clara Evans only found out she was running the Olympic marathon seven days before the race. She flew out to Paris five days beforehand and is getting married in Chepstow next Saturday. But she finished first Brit home in 46th in 2:33:01.
“It’s been a whirlwind. I was prepping for a wedding not a marathon,” she told AW at the finish of the race in the French capital. “I didn’t think I’d make an Olympics. I’m just so proud and happy to be in the team.”
GB team-mates Calli Hauger-Thackery and Rose Harvey didn’t fare so well. Hauger-Thackery had been ahead of Evans in the early stages but fell back through the field and DNF’d, whereas Harvey began slowing a lot in the second half of the race but, determined to finish, battled on grimly to 78th place in 2:51:03.
Struggling with a hip problem, Harvey exited the finish in a wheelchair.
Calli Hauger-Thackery in lead group (Getty)
Evans, 30, had replaced Charlotte Purdue, who withdrew with an ankle injury. The Welsh record-holder’s best is 2:25:01 and on a tough hilly course on Saturday in warm conditions she ran just eight minutes slower as she came in one place behind Gerda Steyn, the South African record-holder and three-time Comrades Marathon winner.
Had Evans been training with the Olympic marathon as a potential race? Not particularly, she explained: “It wasn’t really in the back of my mind but it was in the back of the mind of my coach Chris (Jones). I couldn’t think about it as I felt it was too hard to deal with the prospect of a potential (run). I knew the other girls were still running fine so I wasn’t really thinking about it.
Clara Evans (Getty)
“I was aiming for Valencia at the end of the year so that was my thought process. My main aim was the Europeans. I have been doing a little bit of marathon prep but not fully but it was obviously enough to get through.”
Evans finished ninth in the European half-marathon in Rome in June in 70:06. So she has been in good shape this summer.
Women’s marathon (Getty)
“I just wanted to run strong,” she said. “The wheels came off about 35km but that’s to be expected when you’ve not done a full marathon build up. I just wanted to try to keep going for as long as possible and when I was the first Brit, I just wanted to try to hold on to that.”
On her status as a super-sub, she added: “I may not be as fast as the other girls but I’m definitely strong and I’m good on the tougher courses and very determined. I don’t like people telling me ‘no’ and people tell me ‘no’ I like to prove them wrong and I feel I’ve done that in the last couple of years and now I just want to keep going.”
Clara Evans (Getty)
Full of smiles at the end of 26 gruelling miles, she said: “I could see loads of Welsh flags. I saw some of my family with 2km to go, too. They don’t often come to see me run as they’re always looking after my dog (a Siberian Husky called Bella). But they couldn’t miss this opportunity so they flew out.”
Was her fiancé Paul supporting? “He was on the hill to try to keep me going!” she said.
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On her immediate plans, she said: “I was just about to start my marathon prep for Valencia. This involves going to Font Romeu so I think I’ll carry on with that plan. I think I’m faster than my 2:25 PB but I need to prove it by putting it into a race.”
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