Phoebe Gill

Last updated

Phoebe Gill
Personal information
NationalityEnglish
Born (2007-04-27) 27 April 2007 (age 18)
St Albans, Hertfordshire, England
Height1.77 m (5 ft 10 in) [1]
Sport
Sport Athletics
Event
800m
ClubSt Albans AC
Achievements and titles
Personal best(s)400m: 53.3 (St. Albans, 2024)
800m: 1:57.86 (Belfast, 2024)
1500m: 4:11.96 (Watford, 2023)
1500m: 4:05.87 (Watford, 2024 - mixed gender)
Medal record
Women's athletics
Representing Flag of England.svg  England
Commonwealth Youth Games
Gold medal icon (G initial).svg 2023 Port of Spain 800 m

Phoebe Gill (born 27 April 2007) is a British track and field athlete who competes as a middle-distance runner. In 2023, she became the British under-17 record holder over both 800 metres and 1500 metres. On 30 June 2024 she won the British 800 metres title at the national championships. Phoebe also claimed the European Under-18 record holder for 800 metres in 2024. [2]

Contents

Early life

Gill is from St Albans in Hertfordshire. [3] She was initially focused on swimming before turning her attentions towards athletics. [4] She attended St George's School, Harpenden and became a member of St Albans Athletics Club at under-11 level. [5]

Career

2022

Coached by Deborah Steer at St Albans Athletic Club, [6] Gill set the fifth fastest British U17 age group 800m time in May 2022, running 2:03.74 at the Watford Open Graded Meeting. This placed her ahead of Keely Hodgkinson at the same age and was the fastest by a British U17 athlete since Jessica Warner-Judd in 2011. [7] In August 2022, Gill ran a 1500m time of 4:14.08 which became the fastest ever in the under-17 age group, ran in the UK. [8]

2023

Gill won the English schools title over 800m in July 2023. [9] [10] In July 2023, Gill broke Warner-Judd's U17 British record for the 1500m, when she ran 4:11.96 at the BMC Watford Gold Standard meeting. [11]

Gill was selected to represent England at the 2023 Commonwealth Youth Games held in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago in August 2023. [12] She clocked a time of 2:02:30 to win gold in the 800m, the fastest time by a British U17 female athlete since Jo White in 1977. [13]

Racing in Britain again later in August 2023, she set a new British U17 record for the 800 metres, running 2:01.50 in Watford. [14]

2024

On 1 January 2024, Gill took more than three seconds off of her indoor 400m personal best, running 54.82 in Lee Valley (mixed gender). [15]

On 1 May 2024 (4 days after turning 17), Gill ran 4:05.87 at 1500m in a Watford Open Graded Meeting (mixed gender), improving her personal best by over 6 seconds. This ranked her as the 3rd fastest all-time Female U20 in the UK for 1500m, behind Zola Budd (3:59.96 - 30 August 1985) and Stephanie Twell (4:05.83 - 18 July 2008) [16]

On 11 May 2024, Gill ran 1:57.86 at 800m in Belfast, to break the European Under-18 record of 1:59.65 set by East Germany’s Marion Geissler-Hübner 45 years previously. The time also met the qualifying standard for the 2024 Olympic Games and moved her to joint second place in 2024 world 800m ranking. [17]

She was invited to run for Britain at the 2024 European Athletics Championships in June 2024 but declined, opting to study for her school exams instead. [18] Later that month, she won the 800m title at the 2024 British Athletics Championships in Manchester. [19] [20] On 5 July 2024, she was named in the Great Britain team for the 2024 Summer Olympics [21] where she came fourth in her semi-final in a time of 1:58.47 and did not advance to the final. [22] In October 2024, she was nominated by Athletics Weekly for best British female junior. [23]

2025

Gill opened 2025 with a 54.14 time for the 400m at the Lee Valley Open on 1 January 2025, an indoor 400m personal best. A few weeks later on 18 January at the same venue she recorded a time of 53.65, again a personal indoor best in the 400m. [24] However, a fibula stress fracture caused Gill to miss the outdoor season. Gill joined the University of Edinburgh in 2025 to train as part of the Global Endurance Project, led by coach Mark Rowland. [25]

References

  1. ↑ "GILL Phoebe | Paris 2024". olympics.com. Retrieved 5 August 2024.
  2. ↑ "Phoebe Gill". World Athletics. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  3. ↑ Metcalfe, Neil (10 November 2022). "St Albans athletes at national cross-country and NY Marathon". Hertsad.co.uk. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  4. ↑ Heath, Georgie (5 October 2023). "Phoebe Gill: "Kelly Holmes is a massive inspiration"". Athletics Weekly. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
  5. ↑ Westerby, John (18 May 2024). "Phoebe Gill: the schoolgirl sensation storming into Olympic contention". The Times. Retrieved 19 May 2024.
  6. ↑ "Trinbago 2023: The rise and rise of Phoebe Gill". Teamengland.org. 10 August 2023. Retrieved 5 October 2023.
  7. ↑ Bland, Gill (22 May 2022). "Diamond League action & McColgan breaks European 10km record". Fastrunning.com. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  8. ↑ Smythe, Steve (23 August 2022). "Fast times for prodigious Phoebe Gill and Corey Campbell". Athletics Weekly. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  9. ↑ Adams, Tim (3 July 2023). "Five takeaways from the English Schools Champs" . Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  10. ↑ Metcalfe, Neil (6 July 2023). "Phoebe Gill gets England call after school championship win". Herts Advertiser. Retrieved 6 October 2023.
  11. ↑ Adams, Tim (13 July 2023). "Phoebe Gill takes apart UK U17 1500m record". Athletics Weekly. Retrieved 13 July 2023.
  12. ↑ "Team England athletes selected for Trinidad and Tobago 2023". England Athletics. 4 July 2023. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  13. ↑ Adams, Tim (11 August 2023). "Phoebe Gill stars to win Commonwealth Youth Games 800m title". Athletics Weekly. Retrieved 12 August 2023.
  14. ↑ Rhodes, James (29 August 2023). "Brilliant Budapest – Weekend(ish) Round Up". Fastrunning.com. Retrieved 6 October 2023.
  15. ↑ Smythe, Steve (2 January 2024). "Phoebe Gill in good form – indoor round-up". Athletics Weekly. Retrieved 3 January 2024.
  16. ↑ "Phoebe Gill, just 17, ran 4:05.87 for 1500m in a mixed race in Watford on Wednesday night". Athletics Weekly. Retrieved 2 May 2024.
  17. ↑ "England's Gill, 17, breaks 45-year-old 800m record". BBC Sport. 11 May 2024. Retrieved 11 May 2024.
  18. ↑ Broadbent, Rick (28 May 2024). "Phoebe Gill turns down European Championships to study for exams". The Times. Retrieved 28 May 2024.
  19. ↑ Bloom, Ben (30 June 2024). "17-year-old Phoebe Gill 'in a dream' after storming to place in Olympic team". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 June 2024.
  20. ↑ "ASHER-SMITH, HUDSON-SMITH AND GILL AMONG OLYMPIC CONTENDERS TO LIGHT UP UK CHAMPS". British Athletics. Retrieved 30 June 2024.
  21. ↑ "TEAM GB ATHLETICS SQUAD CONFIRMED FOR PARIS 2024". GB Athletics. Retrieved 5 July 2024.
  22. ↑ "St Albans' Phoebe Gill misses out on 800m Olympic final". The Herts Advertiser. 4 August 2024. Retrieved 4 August 2024.
  23. ↑ Henderson, Jason (30 October 2024). "Vote for your athletes of 2024". Athletics Weekly. Retrieved 18 November 2024.
  24. ↑ Adams, Tim (18 January 2025). "Phoebe Gill runs 53.65 over indoor 400m at Lee Valley". Athletics Weekly.
  25. ↑ "PHOEBE GILL'S UNIVERSITY CHALLENGE". Athletics Weekly. 23 September 2025. Retrieved 5 November 2025.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.