Age: 38 (20/9/1973)

Club: Exeter

Coach: Gavin Pavey

Website: Jo Pavey

Event: Marathon

 

Career Highlights:

Jo Pavey has been setting records and stretching herself as a runner for more than 20 years. Injury set-backs started when she was a junior in the 1990s, but so did her ability to fight them. She started out as a 1500m runner and in 1988 set the under 15 record for the distance running 4:27.9. She made her Great Britain junior international debut at the age of just 15 in Athens.

But early injury problems led to a five-year absence from the scene between 1991 and 1996. She kept training, and ran some low-key races, and made her senior debut at the 1997 World Championships in Athens but missed the next two years, once again due to injury. She continued to prove to be unstoppable and ran 15:18.51 on her 5,000m debut in 2000. She made the Olympic final in Sydney and ran PBs in 3,000m and 5,000m and got her 1500m time to 4:02.03.

In the 2004 Athens Olympic Games she was fifth over 5,000m, and went on to win silver at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games over 5,000m. The move to 10,000m gave her fourth at the 2007 Osaka World Championships and at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, Jo placed 12th in a PB of 31:12.30.

She had hoped to make the step up from 10,000m to marathon in 2010, but the complications that followed the birth of her son, Jacob, in September 2009 prevented her from competing over the longer distance and she subsequently lost her lottery funding. After missing the 2010 European Championships and Commonwealth Games due to a stress fracture she seemed to be making a comeback in 2011, with an amazing debut marathon of 2:28.24 in London in April. In May she ran a cracking time at the Bupa London 10,000m, where she beat Paula Radcliffe, herself returning to form. The marathon time had qualified her for the World Championships held in Degu in August, and the Olympics, but injury also put a stop to that. However, she showed a good return to form in Autumn Half marathons, notably running 69:34 in New York and another qualifying time at the New York Marathon of 2:28:42. However, following Mara Yamauchi's comeback and subsequent selection to the Olympic team (she ran 2:27:24), Jo's going to have to wait a bit longer until she finds out if she's been selected.


Quirky facts: Jo loves boogie boarding!

The Running Bug's prediction for Jo Pavey in the London Olympics 2012:

Outside of podium places