British trail runners of the year – Tom Evans and Rebecca Flaherty

Adrian Stott speaks to two off-road runners who thrive when tackling a variety of challenges

It has been a difficult end to the year for Tom Evans. He had been due to take on the Ultra-Trail Cape Town 100km last month but withdrew from the race after being ambushed by two men during a training run on Table Mountain.

“I was mugged, beaten up, attacked, held at knifepoint and everything I had with me was taken,” said the 31-year-old, who was forced to hand over his wedding ring, phone and watch. However, he added: “It’s been an awesome year and I won’t let two criminals spoil it.”

The AW readers’ choice for the British male mountain, trail and ultra athlete of the year certainly does have much of which to be proud in 2023. The very clear highlight was his victory at the Western States 100 in June, where he became the first British male athlete to win the race.

It was an achievement which did much to widen what was already an impressively high profile.

A British international at ultra distance trail, mountain running, cross-country and half marathon, Evans is a former British Army captain who left the military in 2019 to become a professional ultra runner.

He has shown perseverance not just in terms of his athletics endeavours but also in being able to fund his change of career. With trail and ultra running not being Olympic disciplines, avenues to funding and British Athletics services are severely limited. Evans’ ability to seek credible sponsorship deals, along with harnessing the power of social media, seems to have worked out, however.

He has amassed over 65,000 Instagram followers – more than world 1500m champions Jake Wightman (58,000) and Josh Kerr (51,000) – and is also approaching 10,000 subscribers to his YouTube channel, which documented his training progress towards the Western States.

It is the kind of attention that many track athletes would kill for and indicative of the growth of the global following for ultra trail running. 

 

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Evans is an athlete first and foremost, however, and has had to dedicate himself to some pretty serious training to achieve the results he has so far in his career. When he placed third in the Western States in 2019, he spent two months in Ethiopia at an altitude camp. This year, seeking more specificity, many sessions were conducted in the heat and humidity of the heat chambers at Loughborough University, near his current home base, replicating the conditions to be found in California in June.

Evans decided to forego international opportunities at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships to keep his focus solely on one goal – winning the Western States. He has certainly not ruled out aiming for GB selection again in the future

“Ultra and trail running is growing so fast and it’s amazing to be recognised by AW readers for the hard work this year,” he says. “I have had a great year, with Western States 100 as my highlight. I highly recommend everyone to run on the trails as it not only helps with other types of running, but it’s great fun as well.

“Looking ahead, I will be back racing some shorter stuff over the winter, with one eye on the World Cross Country Championships next year, though the standard is very high at the moment.”

Another Brit who already knows a thing or two about the World Cross is Rebecca Flaherty, who has experienced a whirlwind 12 months.

In November of last year in Thailand, she claimed the silver medal in the junior up and down race at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships. In June this summer, she went one better, winning the gold medal and leading the Great Britain and Northern Ireland line-up to team gold.

In between, a busy cross country season led her to gain selection for the junior team at the World Cross in Bathurst, Australia, in March.

The 18-year-old Bingley Harrier, coached by Andy Henderson, is in her last year at school and looking at university offers from Oxford and Durham, where she hopes to study biochemistry. Being busy and having to balance things up is just how she likes it. So, too, is keeping her running varied. She certainly isn’t afraid to mix things up, having come second on the track to Innes FitzGerald over 3000m at the English Schools Championships, while also admitting to future marathon ambitions.

“I’m trying to enjoy everything,” she says. “I love mountain running and cross country. It has a real race atmosphere to it because it’s all about how you perform on the day and not just what time you can achieve. I would love, one day, to turn to the road and run a marathon. I definitely love the longer stuff although 1500s are not for me. One of the reasons I went mountain running is because the races are so much longer.”

Asked if she has a highlight from the last 12 months of competition and travel, Flaherty adds: “Winning the World Championships. It’s really special when you are wearing a GB vest and then you can come down the finish straight and break the tape as champion. That’s a moment I’m never going to forget.”

Flaherty’s more immediate future will involve cross country contests at the English National and her final English Schools event, while she will also aim to make it to another World Cross Country Championships.

As for the longer term, she says: “I never want to put too much pressure on the future because, with running, you never what can happen. My biggest dream would be to run at the Olympics in the marathon.

“I don’t think I will ever stop running the hills and trails, though. If I have an easy run to do I sometimes go up on to Ilkley Moor. That’s where I’m happiest.” 

» This article first appeared in the December issue of AW magazine, which you can read here

British trail runners of the year – Tom Evans and Rebecca Flaherty appeared first on AW.