Charlotte Ellis (GBR), with her guide runner, competing in the World Para 2019 London Marathon. Charlotte went on to finish 7th, in a time of 03:23:47in the T11/12 Category
Charlotte Ellis made her British team debut in the T12 visual impairment classification. Visually impaired all her life, as a child, she was discouraged from taking part in sport at school, much to her disappointment, but this did not stop her. She found alternative routes into sporting activity, including the less-travelled pursuits of circus performing and self-defence, unlikely exercise classes for a secondary school student, but the beginning of a journey into the sporting world. Trampolining followed at university, before she was encouraged to take up running for the first time, admitting she initially greeted it with scepticism. “One of my house mates was a runner – I’d always wanted to run. I didn’t really think I was good enough, so I didn’t really think it was a good idea. I started but I wasn’t improving much, and it was difficult to find a guide at the time.” Nevertheless, as soon as she had dipped her toe in the running world, another opportunity came up in triathlon, and it was one that the north east athlete did not want to miss. “There was a project for visually impaired athletes to take part in the London Triathlon. It was on my list of things to do, alongside running the Great North Run and the London Marathon. So, I was asked to join this disability triathlon group after doing London, these were early days for para triathlon. I joined in 2009 and won world and European titles within a year, so it was all a bit mad really.” However, her enthusiasm waned in the following years despite further medal success, with the focus on improving the swim meaning she wasn’t running as much as she’d like. It was at this point that she decided to move onto the next thing on her list, and that was to target her running goals over the and mile distances.
Size: 5616px × 3744px
Location: North Colonnade, Canary Wharf, London, United Kingdom
Photo credit: © John Gaffen / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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