Emily Pidgeon born 1 June 1989 in Cheltenham, to parents Stephen and Jessica, is a former UK
athlete
An athlete (also sportsman or sportswoman) is a person who competes in one or more sports that involve physical strength, speed, or endurance.
Athletes may be professionals or amateurs. Most professional athletes have particularly well-devel ...
, specialising in long and
middle distance events.
Junior career
Considered an athletics prodigy as a junior, she is a former
5000 metres
The 5000 metres or 5000-metre run is a common long-distance running event in track and field, approximately equivalent to or . It is one of the track events in the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics, run over laps of a stan ...
European Junior Champion (2005). She was bronze medallist in the 2007 European Junior Championships in Hengelo. In December 2006, Pidgeon, the 2005 silver-medalist at the European JuniCross Country Championships, was in the victorious junior female team at the
Europe
Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...
an
Cross Country Championships. She finished fourth individually behind fellow
Briton
British people or Britons, also known colloquially as Brits, are the citizens of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the British Overseas Territories, and the Crown dependencies.: British nationality law governs mo ...
,
Stephanie Twell
Stephanie April "Steph" Twell (born 17 August 1989) is a British middle- and long-distance runner who competed at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro and trains at Aldershot, Farnham & District AC. S ...
. Pidgeon holds the world record for 5000 meters for 14-year-old girls with a time of 16:24.28.
Senior career
At the
World Cross Country Championships
World Athletics Cross Country Championships is the most important competition in international cross country running. Formerly held annually and organised by World Athletics (formerly the IAAF), it was inaugurated in 1973, when it replaced the Int ...
in
Mombasa
Mombasa ( ; ) is a coastal city in southeastern Kenya along the Indian Ocean. It was the first capital of the British East Africa, before Nairobi was elevated to capital city status. It now serves as the capital of Mombasa County. The town is ...
on 24 March 2007, Pidgeon finished 17th; the second British runner and the second European.
The Great Britain & NI team finished 5th; the top European team.
Pidgeon and her coach controversially withdrew from a number of events because of disagreements with
UK Athletics
UK Athletics (UKA) is the governing body for the sport of athletics (sport), athletics in the United Kingdom. It is responsible for overseeing the governance of athletics events in the UK as well as athletes, their development, and athletics o ...
over training
[
]
Having failed to qualify for the 2012 Summer Olympics, and dogged by injury and form issues since leaving the junior ranks, Pidgeon announced her retirement from the sport, at the age of 24, in January 2014.
Personal bests
Source:
IAAF
World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...
*1500 Metres 4:17.83
Solihull
Solihull (, or ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in West Midlands County, England. The town had a population of 126,577 at the 2021 Census. Solihull is situated on the River Blythe i ...
25 June 2005
*One Mile 4:50.68
Oxford
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...
6 May 2004
*3000 Metres 9:06.87
Twickenham
Twickenham is a suburban district in London, England. It is situated on the River Thames southwest of Charing Cross. Historically part of Middlesex, it has formed part of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames since 1965, and the boroug ...
7 June 2006
*5000 Metres 15:41.00
Solihull
Solihull (, or ) is a market town and the administrative centre of the wider Metropolitan Borough of Solihull in West Midlands County, England. The town had a population of 126,577 at the 2021 Census. Solihull is situated on the River Blythe i ...
24 June 2006
*10 Kilometres 34:28
Bourton-on-the-Water
Bourton-on-the-Water is a village and civil parish in Gloucestershire, England, that lies on a wide flat vale within the Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The village had a population of 3,296 at the 2011 census. Much of the village ...
20 February 2005
*2000 Metres Steeplechase 6:37.76 ''Altitude''
Potchefstroom
Potchefstroom (, colloquially known as Potch) is an academic city in the North West Province of South Africa. It hosts the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University. Potchefstroom is on the Mooi Rivier (Afrikaans for "pretty river" ...
24 April 2006
*3000 Metres Steeplechase 10:06.12
Bedford
Bedford is a market town in Bedfordshire, England. At the 2011 Census, the population of the Bedford built-up area (including Biddenham and Kempston) was 106,940, making it the second-largest settlement in Bedfordshire, behind Luton, whilst ...
3 July 2005
References
External links
Athletics: Pidgeon continues to soar high above cloud of politics The Independent
''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...
Sportstars CBBC
CBBC (initialised as Children's BBC and also known as the CBBC Channel) is a British free-to-air Public service broadcasting in the United Kingdom, public broadcast children's television channel owned and operated by the BBC. It is also the bran ...
Living people
1989 births
Sportspeople from Cheltenham
British female long-distance runners
English female long-distance runners
English female middle-distance runners
English female steeplechase runners
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