UKA's Ian Stewart is a man with a marathon task

Posted: Tuesday 28th April 2009 | 10:57

MARA Yamauchi's performances at last weekend's Flora London Marathon will have eased just slightly the pressure on Ian Stewart - the man charged with reviving Britain's declining heritage for endurance running.

BACK IN THE DAY: Eamonn Martin - a former Commonwealth Games 10,000m gold medallist - is the last British men's winner at the London Marathon. He won the title in 1993 just a few days after becoming a father (Getty Images)

Stewart is a man with a marathon task.

Take away Yamauchi, Paula Radcliffe and Mo Farah and the lack of depth is palpable.

It was underlined dramatically at the recent World Cross Country Championships, where Britain's senior men were cruelly exposed, Frank Tickner the top finisher in 79th (the team finished 14th).

And in London this weekend, it didn't get any better.

Andi Jones was the top British finisher, crossing the line on The Mall in 13th place, just over ten minutes behind winner Sammy Wanjiru.

His time of two hours, 15 minutes and 20 seconds took nearly two minutes off his personal best but was only five seconds quicker than Radcliffe's women's world record.

It doesn't earn him a place in the all-time British top 50.

Or even the top 100.

And it was also over three minutes outside the qualifying A standard for the World Championship marathon for Berlin.

Indeed, the top five British men all posted times that are most politely described as pedestrian in world-class terms.

1. Andi Jones - 2.15.20

2. Benedict Whitby - 2.18.14

3. Richard Gardiner - 2.19.48

4. Tomas Abyu - 2.20.09

5. Neil Renault - 2.20.30

The last British men's London Marathon winner was Eamonn Martin, 16 years ago.

Since then only one home runner has finished in the top three - Paul Evans claiming third 13 years ago.

Jon Brown - who finished fourth in the Olympic marathon in Athens - is the best of recent times, but he gave up on Britain and switched nationalities to Canada, in protest at cuts to his national lottery funding.

When Chris Brasher and John Disley founded the London Marathon they listed six aims for the event.

The first was: "to improve the overall standing of British marathon running by providing a fast course and international competition".

Organisers have certainly delivered on the last two targets and cannot fairly shoulder a responsibility for the failure of the first.

The blame for that lies elsewhere - and the task of rectifying years of under-investment and misguided training techniques now lies with Stewart.

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Comments

One of the best marathon

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Fri, 11/19/2010 - 03:35.

One of the best marathon runners britain has seen in a while and we wouldnt fund him ... and face it if it was paula in his place they wouldnt think about pulling the funding on her!!! so unless things change we will not have a top 3 marathon runner ever!! best jayz

Drugs are not the only way

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 04/29/2009 - 12:09.

Drugs are not the only way .... its just to be a good marathon runner you have to put in the time and miles ... and lets behonest to do this you need to have funding to do so because so many people even the top 3 in london this year for the brits have full time jobs, familys, and the stress of everything else to achieve this time is amazing compared to what the have to do.... the africans live and breathe training !! and to get funding in this country is almost impossible. Hense the reason Jon Brown left. One of the best marathon runners britain has seen in a while and we wouldnt fund him ... and face it if it was paula in his place they wouldnt think about pulling the funding on her!!! so unless things change we will not have a top 3 marathon runner ever!!