Innes FitzGerald

Innes FitzGerald (born 6 April 2006) is a British track and field athlete and cross country runner. She is the 2023 and 2024 European U20 Cross Country champion.

Early life

FitzGerald hails from Beer, Devon and attended Axe Valley Academy. Her parents own a smallholding on which FitzGerald has worked. In 2024, she began to attend the University of Exeter.

Career

2022

She runs for the Exeter Harriers and is trained by Gavin Pavey, the husband of runner Jo Pavey. She won the Mini London Marathon in October 2022. FitzGerald set a new under-17 record for 3,000 metres, and in December 2022 finished fourth in the under-20s European Cross Country Championships in Turin, competing as a seventeen year-old. To avoid flying to the competition, FitzGerald had taken a 20-hour coach and train journey from Exeter to Italy.

2023

In January 2023, FitzGerald turned down the opportunity to compete at the 2023 World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Bathurst, Australia because of concerns she holds about contributing to climate change. In a letter to UK Athletics she wrote that “The reality of the travel fills me with deep concern”, adding that "I was just nine when the COP21 Paris Climate agreement was signed. Now, eight years on, and global emissions have been steadily increasing, sending us on a path to climate catastrophe. Turning this around is only possible through transformational change from collective and personal action."

In March 2023, FitzGerald won the English Schools cross country title. She won the senior girls 3000m at the English Schools Championship in July 2023, clocking 9:16.14. In 2023, she also defended her Mini London Marathon title and won the England under-20 3000m title.

She ran a new personal best at the BMC Watford Gold Standard meet on the 12 July 2023 when she clocked 4:15.04 for the 1500m.

In October 2023, Fitzgerald was announced as the winner of th
BBC Green Sports Awards 'Young Athlete of the Year'
for her refusal to fly to the World Cross Country Championships taking place in Australia. Selected for the 2023 European Cross Country Championships in Brussels in December 2023, she won the women's U20 race and also claimed gold as part of the British squad in the team race. The following week, she finished third behind Laura Muir and Georgia Bell, running the 3000m indoors at the Christmas Classic in Cardiff.

2024

On 20 January 2024, she won the U20 London International Cross Country event. In March 2024, she won the UK U20 Inter-Counties Cross Country Championships at Wollaton Park. However, after the race she said she would not take her automatic place at the 2024 World Athletics Cross Country Championships that month, due to travel time and the impact it would have on her A-Levels study. However, she was named in the British team for the event. She finished as leading European, in 17th place, as Britain finished fifth in the team U20 event.

In May 2024, she was selected to represent England over 3000 metres at the Loughborough International and won the 3000 metres in 9:08.91. She was selected for the 2024 World Athletics U20 Championships in Lima, Peru, where she placed fourth in the final of the 3000 metres in a personal best time of 8:57.01.

In October 2024, she was nominated by ''Athletics Weekly'' for best British female junior. In November 2024, she was named by British Athletics on the Olympic Futures Programme for 2025. On 23 November 2024, she won the U20 race at the Liverpool Cross Challenge. She was selected for the British U20 team for the 2024 European Cross Country Championships in Antalya, Turkey, winning gold in the U20 race to become just the fourth woman to win back-to-back titles at the event.

2025

In January 2025, she ran 8:48.30 in Cardiff to better the European under-20 indoor 3000m record, however the time is not officially ratified as it occurred in a mixed race. She broke the European under-20 3000m indoors record in February 2025, running 8:40.05 in Ostrava to beat Sofia Thøgersen's previous best mark by 10 seconds. The time also took 16 seconds off Zola Budd’s 40 year-old British indoor under-20 record. She finished third over 3000 metres at the 2025 British Indoor Athletics Championships. She was selected for the British team for the 2025 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn, where she qualified for the final of the 3000 metres on her senior international debut. In the final, she placed eighth overall.

She ran a 3000 metres personal best of 8:32.90 at the 2025 BAUHAUS-galan event in Stockholm, part of the 2025 Diamond League.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:FitzGerald, Innes
2006 births
Living people
Sportspeople from Devon
English female long-distance runners
British female long-distance runners
English female cross country runners
British female cross country runners
People from East Devon District
21st-century English sportswomen