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]
Early life
Gill is from St Albans in Hertfordshire.[3] She was initially focused on swimming before turning her attentions towards athletics.[4] She attends 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]
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]
