Jess Martin

Jessica Anne "Jess" Martin (née Andrews; born 1 October 1992) is a British long-distance runner who competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics, held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. She currently runs for Aldershot, Farnham & District AC.

For the American country music singer, see Jessica Andrews.

Personal life

Martin was born on 1 October 1992.[1] She attended school on the Isle of Wight. As a student she received financial support from fellow Great Britain Olympian Mo Farah's foundation,[2] studying for a degree in Sport, Health & Exercise Sciences at Brunel University.[3] She is married to Irish road cyclist Dan Martin.[4] The couple met whilst they were training in the Sierra Nevada.[2] In 2014, she moved from Surrey to Martin's home in Andorra, and she currently splits her time between Andorra and Girona, where she trains with her coach Josep Carballude.[5]

Career

Martin was unable to compete in the summer of 2013 after suffering a stress-fracture in her foot but returned to competition towards the end of the year.[6] At the 2013 European Cross Country Championships, held in Belgrade, Serbia, she finished 16th in the individual women's under-23's race. She also won a gold medal as part of the British women's under-23's team alongside Charlotte Purdue, Kate Avery, Lily Partridge, Rhona Auckland and Laura Weightman.[7]

In February 2014 she finished fifth over the eight kilometre distance at the National Cross-Country Championships in Nottingham, with her team Aldershot Farnham and District, winning the team title.[6] Later that year she competed at the Southern Cross Country championships, winning the senior women's title and finished fifth at the Saucony English Cross Country Nationals.[8]

At the 2016 British Olympic trials, Martin beat her personal best in the 10,000 metres by 83 seconds to win the event in a time of 31 minutes 58 seconds and qualify for the Great Britain team for the 2016 Summer Olympics, being held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.[2][9][10] The trials race was only Martin's second competitive 10,000 metre track race, having made her debut six weeks earlier at a meeting in Portugal.[5] Beth Potter finished second in the race to also qualify for Rio.[2] Martin further improved her personal best in the Olympics finals, finishing in 16th place at 31 minutes 35 seconds [11] After stepping off the track with six laps remaining of the 2017 World Championships 10,000m race she subsequently announced her retirement from international athletics aged 24. [12]

References
  1. "Jessica Andrews". British Athletics. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
  2. Fordyce, Tom (21 May 2016). "Jess Andrews wins British 10,000m title as Jo Pavey falters". BBC Sport. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
  3. "Athlete Profile Jessica Andrews". Brunel University. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
  4. "23/01/17 Weekend Update". British Athletics. UK Athletics Limited. 23 January 2017. Retrieved 18 February 2017. Andorra based Olympian Jess Martin (nee Andrews) was the pick of the Brits in action in Spain on Sunday, as she finished fifth in this IAAF Permit Race.
  5. Coldwell, Ben (10 July 2016). "Jess Andrews: Nobody knew or cared who I was". Athletics Weekly. Retrieved 10 July 2016.
  6. "Jessica Andrews – British U23 distance athlete on the come-back trail". trackfield97.com. 31 March 2014. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
  7. "Jessica Andrews crosses the line into national success". Get West London. 17 December 2013. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
  8. "Jessica Andrews named Senior Women Champion at Southern Cross Country championships". Brunel university. 26 February 2014. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
  9. Findon, Ross (22 May 2016). "Isle of Wight runner Jess Andrews qualifies for Rio Olympics". Isle of Wight County Press. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
  10. Bloom, Ben (21 May 2016). "Jo Pavey's Olympic Games ambitions dealt a huge blow as she fails to hit qualifying time at national trials". The Telegraph. Retrieved 23 May 2016.
  11. "Results - Womens 10000m - Athletics - Rio 2016 - Olympics - BBC Sport". Retrieved 24 July 2017.
  12. "Jessica Martin announces her retirement from international athletics". Athletics Weekly. 5 August 2017. Retrieved 4 September 2018.

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