Winks To Start The Virgin Money Giving Mini London Marathon
Spurs midfielder and England under 21 international Harry Winks will be the official starter of the Virgin Money Giving Mini London Marathon on Sunday 23 April.
The Virgin Money Giving Mini London Marathon is a series of 10 races over the last three miles of the London Marathon course involving more than 1,500 of the country’s best 11 to 17 year-old runners and wheelchair racers.
Wicks will set them on their way from Old Billingsgate at 08:40 before greeting the winners at the Finish Line in The Mall where he will be joined by long jumper and The Voice contestant Jazmin Sawyers to present their medals and prizes.
The 21-year-old Winks, who hails from Hemel Hempstead in Hertfordshire, made his Premier League debut for Tottenham Hotspur in a home tie against Liverpool last August. He has represented England at all levels from under 17 to under 21, but suffered an ankle ligament injury playing for Spurs on 4 April.
Winks joins a roll call of high-achieving British sports stars who have started the Mini Marathon in recent years, including Max Whitlock, Denise Lewis, Jonny Wilkinson, Sir Steve Redgrave, Ellie Simmonds and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.
Sawyers won a silver medal for England in the long jump at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games and appeared on ITV’s The Voice in February this year. She will be presenting the BBC’s coverage of the races.
The Virgin Money Giving Mini London Marathon, which incorporates the official British Athletics Road Running Championships for young athletes, has long been a seedbed for future athletics champions such as Mo Farah, David Weir and Hannah Cockroft, all of whom won Mini Marathon titles in their youth before becoming Olympic or Paralympic gold medallists.
The event has also been a breeding ground for talented runners who have gone on to succeed in other sports, such as triathlon’s double Olympic medal-winning Brownlee brothers, Jonathan and Alistair, and the 2013 women’s triathlon world champion, Non Stanford.
Britain’s future stars will represent nine English regions and three home country teams while young athletes from the capital will run for one of the 33 London boroughs.
The young runners taking part have all been selected from regional trials, held throughout the winter. Each team consists of 36 runners, six for each of the half dozen race categories, while there are also four races for the best young wheelchair athletes in the country.
The start times and T-shirt colours for each of this year’s races are as follows:
08:40
wheelchair girls U17
intense pink
08:40
wheelchair boys U17
sandstorm
08:42
wheelchair girls U14
collegiate purple
08:42
wheelchair boys U14
forest green
08:55
boys U17
black
09:02
boys U15
royal blue
09:09
boys U13
victory red
09:16
girls U17
white
09:23
girls U15
sun yellow
09:30
girls U13
collegiate blue
More information, including course records and past results, can be found at: www.minimarathon.co.uk.
Picture: Virgin Money London Marathon