With the Paris marathon only a few days away, we take a look at Britain’s second fastest marathon runner ever and St Mary’s University (SMU) alumni.
Emile is one of six athletes who trained at the Endurance Performance Centre at SMU and have been selected to compete at this year’s games.
Finishing third at the TCS London Marathon with 2.06.46, he secured his ticket to Paris to make his Olympic debut.
In a world driven by data, Cairess has a more simplistic approach and is famous for racing with an orange Casio stopwatch (pictured below). He told Runners World Podcast that “I think just wearing a stopwatch takes some of the pressure off … I think it’s good for you mentally to be a bit disengaged sometimes, rather than feeling stressed about things that don’t need to be stressed about.”
Credit: Andrew Redington
Speaking to The Sunday Plodcast in 2023, he described how he started running with his mum Alison, an art teacher, when he was four. He stepped onto the club scene as an U13 at Bingley Harriers before moving to Leeds City at 16 years.
“I think just wearing a stopwatch takes some of the pressure off“
After attending the London Marathon Young Athletes Camp hosted at St Mary’s as a teenager, his eyes were set on going to university there.
Credit: Mark Shearman.
Cairess won the BUCS Cross Country Championships twice when studying at SMU, one of which included a fierce battle against Patrick Dever in 2019 (pictured above). Dever has also qualified for the 5000m and 10,000m this year.
Cairess signed with Adidas in 2022 and made headlines at his marathon debut in London 2023 after beating Mo Farah, finishing as the first Brit. The Bradford born athlete is also the current European record holder for the road 10 miles.
In the Behind the Scenes SportsShoes episode, they captured a recent training session out in Sestriere, in the Italian Alps. 6x5k with 5 minutes recovery – with the first two splits averaging 14.52. Joking with his coach, Renato Canova, at the end of the session about how to get back – “not another 5k?” he laughs. “No, no, we can go in the car” Canova replies.
Cairess is joined by Mahamed Mahamed and Phil Sesemann to form the GB men’s marathon team and takes the stage on Saturday 10th August at 7AM BST. The race will be broadcasted on either BBC One or BBC Two.