For the second year in a row, the event will be the official test race for the half-marathon of the World Championships in Athletics.
The prospect of qualifying for September’s World Athletics Championships has drawn a highly elite field for this year’s GetPRO Bath Half Marathon, including defending champions Jake Smith and Abby Donnelly, plus Olympians Phil Sesemann, Jess Warner-Judd and Alex Bell.
Held on March 15, the Bath Half is the host of British Athletics’ official test race for the half-marathon event of the World Athletics Road Championships for the second year running.
Smith and Donnelly took the podium last year with impressive wins. Smith, the fifth-fastest British half-marathoner in history, ran the fastest ever by a British athlete over the Bath course (62:20), while Donnelly’s victory (69:54) was the second-fastest by a British woman in the event’s history.
Donnelly built on that performance by running 2:24:11 at the Frankfurt Marathon last October, a time that puts him seventh on the all-time UK marathon list.
Sesemann, who represented Great Britain in the marathon at the Paris Olympics, became the fifth fastest Briton of all time over the 26.2 miles when he clocked 2:07:10 in Valencia last December. Finishing third in the Antrim Half Marathon last August, he set a half marathon personal best of 61:22.
Also on the men’s list is Joe Wigfield, who has made an impressive start to 2026. He equaled Rory Leonard’s British 10km record of 27:38 in Valencia in January before returning to Spain for the Barcelona Half Marathon last month where he clocked 61:16. Alfie Manthorpe, who ran 61:26 in Valencia last October, will also run in Bath.
Donnelly is part of a strong women’s field that includes Olympians Jess Warner-Judd and Alex Bell.
Warner-Judd is the fourth fastest British woman in the half marathon (67:06) and has competed in both the 5,000m and 10,000m at the Olympics. He also finished seventh in the distance in his debut at the New York City Marathon last November.
Bell, an 800m finalist at the Tokyo Olympics, has flourished on the roads this year, posting personal bests in the 10km (30:57) and half marathon (69:35) in Valencia and Dubai respectively.
The top two men and top two women (61:30 for men and 69:30 for women) in the Bath Half Marathon qualifying criteria will be selected for the Great Britain team for the half marathon at the World Road Championships in September in Copenhagen.
In the men’s race, Wigfield and Manthorpe currently hold the qualifying standards. In the women’s field, no one has applied the standard since the election period that began in September of last year.
Many of the athletes taking part in the Bath half are using it as preparation for the London Marathon on April 26, including Smith, Sezman and Manthorpe in the men’s race and Donnelly and Warner-Judd in the women’s.
Elite women’s field
Jessica Warner-Judd (67:06)
Abby Donnelly (69:05)
Lily Partridge (69:34)
Alex Bell (69:35)
Lauren McNeil (69:38)
Lucy Reid (70:29)
Charlotte Taylor (70:38)
Verity Hopkins (71:43)
Annabelle Gummow (72:26)
Kate Estlea-Morris (72:27)
Esme Davies (73:14)
Rosie Hamilton-James (73:43)
Molly Smith (75:49)
Jade Morgan (debut)
Megan Gadsby (debut)
Elite Men Access List
Elite men’s field
Jake Smith (60:31)
Ben Connor (60:55)
Joe Wigfield (61:16)
Phil Seseman (61:22)
Alfie Manthorpe (61:26)
Ollie Lockley (63:01)
Ben Alcock (63:09)
Peter Le Grice (64:21)
Edward Buck (64:23)
Joshua Grace (64:27)
Josh Hobbs (64:29)
Robert Warner-Judd (64:37)
Ryan Thompson (64:40)
Christopher Thomas (64:43)
Dominic Nolan (64:49)
Cole Gibbons (65:00)
Bishop David (65:15)
