Georgia Bell, Wannamaker Mile winner

Georgia Bell Wannamaker Mile winner

Georgia Bell’s win at the Millrose in 4:23.35 was a great achievement but it was also another amazing step in an unbelievable year.  She said of her close win over Heather McLean “Coming round the bend with 100 to go I thought ‘I’ve got this’ but I knew I had to drive all the way to the finish.  The time was slower than I expected as no one wanted to take up the pace but I think that’s OK when racing is racing. I always go into a race thinking ‘I want to win’, not ‘I want to run a British record’ but I got a PR and a win so I am over the moon.

This time last year Georgia had a regular 9-5 job in cyber security software in London. She described life as “a big juggling act to make it all happen”. Working from home a lot enabled her to train morning and evening rather than having a 2 hour compute to and from work.  Let me come clean, this time last year I had never heard of Georgia Bell.

She was a good athlete in her teens top ranked 800m runner for Under 15 and Under 17 in the UK at the time.  This resulted in a scholarship to University of California In Berkeley but there she kept being injured.  Looking back she thinks it was due to excessive mileage. Once she left Berkeley she stopped running – “I never thought I would ever get back on a track ever again”.

When the pandemic and lockdown came she got back into running and did some Parkruns and cycling.  As she started to enjoy running she got back in contact with her old coach Trevor Painter, coach of Keely Hodgkinson. She sent him some details of her times and he encouraged her to keep running and gave her training plans.

This time last year  she just decided to entered some races and see where it took her.  In February 2024 she ran in the GB Indoor Champs winning in 4:09.66, which confirmed her selection for the World Indoors and a 4^th place finish in 4:03.47 where her assessment was: “It is a bit disappointing to come so close to the medals and just miss out”.

She was selected for the European Championships in Rome in June 2024 taking silver in 4:05.33, after which she spoke from the heart: “It sounds incredible to be a European silver medallist, I cannot stop smiling. I should be at work tomorrow morning, but I’m here competing at European Championships, so I am very happy. Even six months I would have thought you were crazy if you told me I’d win a…