The Principality Building Society Cardiff Half Marathon is an annual half marathon race held in the Welsh capital city of Cardiff, taking place in October. The event was established in 2003, initially alongside the Cardiff Marathon, however, due to the increasing popularity of the Half Marathon, the Marathon distance was dropped after 2006. The race was originally organised by the children’s charity Barnardo’s. Now organised by Run 4 Wales, the race has grown to accommodate up to 27,500 runners.
Venissa Anne Head is a former international track and field athlete from Wales.
Paula Fudge is an English former middle and long-distance runner. She won a gold medal in the 3000 metres at the 1978 Commonwealth Games, and on 13 September 1981 she set the world record for the 5000 metres with 15.14.51, the first recognised women's 5000m world record by the IAAF. This record remained the British record until 1985 when it was broken by Zola Budd. She also won a bronze medal in the 3000 metres at the 1982 European Indoor Championships.
Jessica Warner-Judd is an English middle- and long-distance runner. She won two individual medals in the Under-20 and U23 races at the European Cross Country Championships and a gold medal for the 5000 metres at the 2019 Universiade.
Kathy Butler is a long-distance runner who competes in the 10,000 metres and marathon, as well as cross country running and road running. Born in Scotland, she has competed internationally for both Great Britain and Canada.
Eilish McColgan is a Scottish middle- and long-distance runner. She is the 2022 Commonwealth Games 10,000 metres champion with the Games record, and 5000 metres silver medallist. McColgan is a four-time European Championships medallist, winning silver medals for the 5000 m in 2018 and 10,000 m in 2022, bronze in the 5000 m in 2022, and a bronze for the indoor 3000 metres in 2017. She is the European record holder for the 10 km road race, and the British record holder for the 5000 m, 10,000 m, 5 km and half marathon. She also holds the European best in the 10 miles on the roads.
Athletics has a long history in Wales, with many events recognised today codified during the Victorian period. The first amateur athletic clubs in Wales were formed in the 1870s, while the first championships began in the early 20th century. Wales began competing as a country in international athletic events in the 1920s and has since produced a notable number of world class sportspeople including many medal winning Commonwealth, World, Olympic, Paralympic and European champions. Wales competes in the Commonwealth Games under its own flag but at the Olympic Games, Welsh athletes compete alongside those of Scotland, England and Northern Ireland as part of a Great Britain team.
Hollie Beth Arnold, is a British parasport athlete competing in category F46 javelin. Although born in Grimsby, she now lives and trains in Loughborough. She represents Wales in the Commonwealth Games. Arnold was the youngest ever field athlete to ever compete in the Paralympics, at the age of 14 at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, under the guidance of Olympic Javelin Thrower Shelley Holroyd, throwing a personal best. She also threw a personal best in 2012 Summer Paralympics in London. She took the gold medal in the F46 javelin in the 2016 Rio Paralympics, also throwing a new world record at the same time. In 2021, at the delayed 2020 Tokyo Paralympics, she took the bronze medal in the same event. In 2018, she became the first ever Para Javelin thrower in history to hold all four major titles in the same Paralympic 4-year cycle: Rio Paralympics and world record 2016, London World Championships and world record 2017, Berlin European Championships and course record 2018 and Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and world record 2018. In 2019 Arnold lost her World Record to New Zealand F46 Para Javelin Thrower Hollie Robinson with the first 45m+ throw in history. She also holds four consecutive world titles: 2013 Lyon, 2015 Doha, 2017 London, and 2019 Dubai.
Rhys Jones is a Paralympic athlete from Wales competing in category T37 sprinting events. Jones qualified for the 2012 Summer Paralympics in the 100m and 200m sprint. Making the final of the 200m at his first major games. From Clydach Vale, Rhondda
Olivia "Livvy" Breen is a Welsh Paralympian athlete, who competes for Wales and Great Britain mainly in T38 sprint and F38 long jump events. She qualified for the 2012 Summer Paralympics and was selected for the T38 100m and 200m sprint and was also part of the T35-38 women's relay team. She has also represented Wales at the 2014, 2018 and 2022 Commonwealth Games winning gold in the F38 Long Jump in 2018 and gold in the T37/38 100m in 2022.
Jade Louise Lally is a British track and field athlete. She won a bronze medal for England in the women's discus at the 2014 Commonwealth Games, and represented Great Britain at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Her personal best is 65.10m set at the New South Wales Open Championships (AUS) on 27th February 2016.
Callum Robert Hawkins is a British distance runner, who competed in the marathon at the 2016 Summer Olympics. He is the Scottish record holder in the marathon and the British all-time number three at that distance behind Mo Farah and Steve Jones. Hawkins is also the all-time Great Britain number two in the half marathon. He is the Great Scottish Run course record holder and was the first British man to win that event in 23 years.
Jennifer-Louise Nesbitt, also known as Jenny Nesbitt, is a British long-distance runner. She represented Wales in the 10000m at the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Charlotte Arter is a British distance athlete. Arter comes from Cumbria but represents Wales in athletics, having qualified via the residency rule. Arter previously worked for Cardiff University, managing their high performance athletics programme. She is the current Welsh record holder in the half marathon. She is the current joint women's Parkrun record holder setting a time of 15 minutes and 49 seconds at Cardiff Parkrun on 1 February 2020. She was the 2018 British 10,000m champion.
Lucy Evans is a British track and field athlete who specialises in the 100 and 200 metres sprinting events.
Charlie Hulson is a British athlete and senior professional marathon runner, most recently noted to achieve a Personal Best marathon time of 2:13:34. at the Virgin Money London Elite Marathon, 4 October 2020. He finished 20th, fifth British runner.
Natasha Cockram is a Welsh marathon runner.
Adele Nicoll is a British shot putter, discus thrower and bobsledder. She has won multiple Welsh Athletics Championships events, and won the shot put event at the 2022 and 2023 British Athletics Championships. She came second in the 2021–22 Bobsleigh World Cup event in Sigulda, Latvia alongside Mica McNeill. Nicoll was a reserve for the 2022 Winter Olympics, and competed at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Poppy-Grace Stickler is a Welsh artistic gymnast. She is the 2019 Northern European all-around silver medalist. She represented Wales at the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
