RETURNING CHAMPIONS SMITH AND DONNELLY BACK TO DEFEND TITLES AT 2026 GETPRO BATH HALF 

The prospect of earning qualification for the 2026 World Athletics Road Running Championships has attracted a top-class elite field for this year’s GetPRO Bath Half Marathon which includes defending champions Jake Smith and Abbie Donnelly, plus Olympians Phil Sesemann, Jess Warner-Judd and Alex Bell. 

It is the second successive year the GetPRO Bath Half Marathon, which takes place on Sunday 15 March, has been named the host of the official British Athletics trial race for the half marathon event at the World Athletics Road Running Championships. 

Smith and Donnelly earned top spot on the podium last year with impressive wins: Smith – the fifth-fastest British half-marathoner in history – ran the fastest ever time by a British athlete on the Bath course (62:20), while Donnelly’s winning time of 69:54 was the second fastest by a British female 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 her seventh on the all-time list for the fastest British female marathon runners. 

Sesemann, who represented Great Britain in the marathon at the 2024 Olympic Games, became the fifth-fastest British man of all-time over the 26.2-mile distance when he recorded 2:07:10 in Valencia last December. He set a half marathon personal best of 61:22 when finishing third at the Antrim Half Marathon last August. 

Also among the men’s entry list is Joe Wigfield who has had an impressive start to 2026, running the second-fastest 10K ever by a British athlete (27:38) in Valencia in January and then returning to Spain for the Barcelona Half Marathon a month later and clocking 61:16, while Alfie Manthorpe, who ran 61:26 in Valencia last October is also confirmed. 

Donnelly will be challenged in the women’s race by a pair of in-form Olympians: Jess Warner-Judd and Alex Bell. 

Warner-Judd, the fourth-fastest British woman in history over the half marathon distance (67:06) and Olympian over 5,000m and 10,000m, finished seventh at the TCS New York City Marathon last November on her debut over the distance, while Bell, an 800m finalist from the 2021 Olympic Games, has run two big personal bests already this year with a 30:57 10K in Valencia, and a 69:35 half marathon in Dubai. 

The top two male and top two female finishers with the qualifying standard (61:30 for men, 69:30 for women) at the GetPRO Bath Half Marathon will be selected for the Great Britain team for half marathon at the World Road Running Championships in Copenhagen in September. 

Currently, Wigfield and Manthorpe have the qualifying standard in the men’s race. No one in the women’s field has run the standard since the qualifying period began last September. 

Many of the athletes taking on the GetPRO Bath Half Marathon are using it as a tune-up for the TCS London Marathon on Sunday 26 April, including Smith, Sesemann and Manthorpe in the men’s race and Donnelly and Warner-Judd in the women’s event. For more information on the British fields for the TCS London Marathon, click here. 

Elite women’s entry list 

• Jessica Warner-Judd (Half marathon PB, 67:06) 
• Abbie 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) 
• Annabel 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’s entry list 

• Jake Smith (Half marathon PB 60:31) 
• Ben Connor (60:55) 
• Joe Wigfield (61:16) 
• Phil Sesemann (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 Thomson (64:40) 
• Christopher Thomas (64:43) 
• Cole Gibbens (65:00) 
• Gavin Taylor (65:04) 
• David Bishop (65:15)