‘I need to be running sub-70 [minutes] to have a chance’ – Evans takes aim at Berlin Half Marathon on April 7
WELSH marathon record holder, Clara Evans, hopes to take the final spot on the Great Britain and Northern Ireland team for the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Evans, 30, is racing at the Berlin Half Marathon on April 7 in a bid to be selected for her first Olympics.
Evans, who lives in Cardiff and runs for Pontypridd Roadents Athletic Club, has done several marathons, saying: “I know what I am doing, and I just need to execute it right on the day.”
Evans, from Hereford, needs to run the qualifying time of 70:30 in Berlin but because of the stiff competition she believes she is going to have run faster: “I need to be running sub 70 [minutes] to have a chance.”
Two of the three spots on the team have been confirmed already with Charlotte Purdue and Calli Hauger-Thackery confirmed in the team. The final place on the team will be picked on April 22 and will be based off the remaining athletes’ current form.
Evans, who started running when she was seven at Hereford and County Athletic Club, ran the Team GB marathon qualifying time when she broke the Welsh record by over a minute with 2:25:01 at Valencia Marathon – a result she was not expecting.
“I didn’t think I would go as fast as I did. I didn’t really think I could even run the Olympic [qualifying] time for this year. So, I didn’t have it in my sights.
“If only I could have gone two seconds faster [to break 2:25:00],” joked Evans, who ran for Wales at the Commonwealth Games in 2022, finishing in ninth place as the first Briton.
She turned 30 a couple of days before the record-breaking run in Valencia but did not want to celebrate until after the race.
“A few people asked me ‘what are you doing to celebrate?’ and I just said ‘nothing because I am racing a marathon on the weekend!'”
Evans has continued her strong form through the winter and recently got a 40-second personal best at the Trafford 10km on Sunday, March 3, running 31.53 and finishing in third place.
She is currently in Font-Romeu in the French Pyrenees which is about 1,800m above sea-level. She has an apartment there and goes out every year for altitude training.
She will be there for three weeks in the lead up to the Berlin Half Marathon.
Evans usually runs around 100 miles every week with some gym sessions but some training weeks can be up to 115 miles.
She has been training with her coach, Chris Jones, since 2019 having moved to Cardiff in 2012.
She works three days a week in transport planning and can work from home, which allows her to fit her training around it.
