| Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Birth name | William Charles Greathead Barnicoat | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Nationality | Great Britain | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Born | 24 March 2003 Guildford | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 5'11 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Sport | Athletics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Event | 5000m | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Achievements and titles | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Personal best(s) | 5000m: 13:19.66 (Paris, 2024) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Will Barnicoat (born 24 March 2003) is a British track and field athlete and cross country runner. He was European U20 cross country champion in 2022, and became European U23 cross country champion in 2023 and 2024. [1]
Barnicoat runs for Aldershot, Farnham and District Athletics Club. [2] He attended Cranleigh School, [3] and the University of Birmingham, where he was a contemporary of athletes Axel Vang Christensen and David Stone. As a student, Barnicoat supplemented his income working as a pot washer at a branch of Gourmet Burger Kitchen. [4] [5] He won his first vest for Great Britain aged 16, running in the European Cross Country Championships in Lisbon in December 2019.
In February 2022, he became the English National junior cross-country champion for the second time, having also been U17 champion before that. [6] [7] Later that year, he won the 2022 European Cross Country Championships U20 race in Turin. [8] [9]
He was a bronze medallist in the 2023 European Athletics U23 Championships – Men's 5000 metres in Espoo. [10] In December 2023, he won the 2023 European Cross Country Championships U23 race in Brussels. [11] He also claimed gold as part of the British squad which won the U23 team event. [12]
In March 2024, he was named in the senior British team for the 2024 World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Serbia, [13] where he finished 27th (the highest British men's finish since Mo Farah in 2010). [14] In May 2024, he won the British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS) 5000 metres. [15] In July he ran a personal best of 13:19.66 in Paris, the third fastest outdoor U23 British 5000m time. [16]
In November 2024, he was named by British Athletics on the Olympic Futures Programme for 2025. [17] He won gold in the U23 individual and with the British U23 team at the 2024 European Cross Country Championships in Antalya, Turkey. [18] [19]
In March, at the Podium 5K Festival he was the fastest Briton and ran the 5th fastest 5K road time in British history (13:29). [20] In May he successfully defended his British University Championships 5000m title. [21] He won the bronze medal in the 5000 metres at the 2025 European Athletics U23 Championships in Bergen, finish 0.31 behind the silver medalist Nick Griggs of Ireland with Niels Laros of the Netherlands winning gold. [22] [23] He finished fourth over 5000 metres at the 2025 UK Athletics Championships in Birmingham on 3 August 2025. [24]
