Stephanie April Twell (born 17 August 1989) is a British middle- and

long-distance runner Long-distance running, or endurance running, is a form of continuous running over distances of at least . Physiologically, it is largely Aerobic exercise, aerobic in nature and requires stamina as well as mental strength. Within endurance ru ...

who competed at the

2008 Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fr ...

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

, the

2016 Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro, or simply Rio, is the capital of the Rio de Janeiro (state), state of Rio de Janeiro. It is the List of cities in Brazil by population, second-most-populous city in Brazil (after São Paulo) and the Largest cities in the America ...

and the

2020 Summer Olympics The officially the and officially branded as were an international multi-sport event that was held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some of the preliminary sporting events beginning on 21 July 2021. Tokyo ...

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. She trains at Aldershot, Farnham & District AC. She won the 1500 metres at the 2008 World Junior Championships, and is a three-time winner of the European Junior Cross Country Championships (2006–2008), as well as being part of four winning Great Britain teams. Representing Scotland, she won a bronze medal in the 1500 metres at the

2010 Commonwealth Games The 2010 Commonwealth Games, officially known as the XIX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Delhi 2010, were an international multi-sport event for the members of the Commonwealth that was held in Delhi, India, from 3 to 14 October 201 ...

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

. Twell is currently sponsored by sports company

Hoka One One Hoka (stylized as HOKA and formerly known as Hoka One One) is a sportswear company that designs and markets running shoes. It was founded in 2009 in Annecy, France and had been based in Richmond, California before it was acquired by Deckers Bra ...

and was previously sponsored by

New Balance New Balance Athletics, Inc. (NB), doing business as New Balance, is one of the world's major sports footwear and apparel manufacturers. Based in Boston, Massachusetts, the multinational corporation was founded in 1906 as the New Balance Arch Su ...

. She was coached by one of the nation's leading endurance coaches,

Mick Woods Michael 'Mick' Woods (born 15 February 1949 in Great Britain) is a former long-distance runner and a middle/long-distance running coach. He is currently a coach at Aldershot, Farnham and District Athletics Club, Aldershot, Farnham & District A ...

, for 19 years, from 1998 to 2017. She is now self-coached.

Personal life

Twell was born in

Colchester Colchester ( ) is a city in northeastern Essex, England. It is the second-largest settlement in the county, with a population of 130,245 at the 2021 United Kingdom census, 2021 Census. The demonym is ''Colcestrian''. Colchester occupies the ...

, England. Twell announced in 2009 that she would compete for Scotland rather than England, and represented Scotland at the 2010 and 2014 Commonwealth Games, despite running for Hampshire in the London Mini Marathon 2007 over Scotland. She is eligible to compete for Scotland as her mother is from Paisley. She married fellow runner Joe Morwood in the autumn of 2018. In May 2019, the couple broke the world record for the fastest 1 mile while holding hands.

Career

Twell's personal best time for the 1500 metres is 4:02.70, set in

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, Spain on 1 August 2010. She competed in the women's 1500 metres at the

2008 Beijing Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

and was eliminated in her heats running 4:06.68. In September 2008, Twell was named European Athletics Rising Star of 2008. In January 2009 she was named "Telegraph Ten for 2012" – 10 of Britain's brightest young sports stars in ''

The Daily Telegraph ''The Daily Telegraph'', known online and elsewhere as ''The Telegraph'', is a British daily broadsheet conservative newspaper published in London by Telegraph Media Group and distributed in the United Kingdom and internationally. It was found ...

''. She began the 2009 cross country season well, winning at the

Antrim International Cross Country The Antrim International Cross Country, formerly the Belfast International Cross Country, is an annual cross country running meeting which takes place every January in Antrim, Northern Ireland. It is one of the IAAF's cross country permit meeti ...

. A few months later, Twell finished 38th in the 2009 World Cross Country Championships in Jordan. Although she was the fastest Briton in the race, she was disappointed with her performance and stated that she resolved to do better in the next championships. She set a new personal best in the

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 sta ...

in May 2009, winning the Artur Takac Memorial in 15:18.47 – a meeting record. She had a disappointing run at the

2009 European Team Championships The first European Athletics Team Championships took place on 20 and 21 June 2009. The track and field athletics tournament run by European Athletics was the successor of the old European Cup (athletics), European Cup competition which was held a ...

over 3000 m, finishing in fourth in a time well outside her PB. At the 2009 World Championships she was never in contention in her heat at 1500 m and then when one of the favourites she was only 11th in the European Cross Country Championships (under 23 race). Her 2010 was marked by improvements in her personal bests on the track. She set a

1500 metres The 1500 metres or 1500-metre run is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athletics since 1983. It is equivalent to 1.5 kilomet ...

best at the Weltklasse Zurich

Diamond League The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising fifteen invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics one-day meet competitions. The inaugural season was ...

meeting, finishing third and ahead of Lisa Dobriskey with a time of 4:02.54. Stepping up to the 5000 m at the

Memorial van Damme The Memorial Van Damme is an annual athletics event at the King Baudouin Stadium in Brussels, Belgium, that takes place in late August or early September. Previously one of the IAAF Golden League events, it now serves as a final event of the D ...

in Brussels, she smashed her previous best by 22 seconds to set a new Scottish record of 14.54.08, breaking

Yvonne Murray Yvonne Carole Grace Murray-Mooney (née Murray; born 4 October 1964), is a Scottish former middle-distance and long-distance track and road-running athlete. She won a bronze medal in the 3000 metres at the 1988 Olympic Games, and gold m ...

's 15-year-old mark. She ran at the Women's 5K Challenge in London in August 2010 and took third place behind

Sylvia Kibet Sylvia Jebiwott Kibet (born 28 March, 1984) is a Kenyan professional long-distance runner. She was the silver medallist in the 5000 metres at the World Championships in Athletics in both 2009 and 2011. She also won medals over the d ...

and

Linet Masai Linet Chepkwemoi Masai (born 5 December 1989) is a Kenyan professional long-distance runner who competes in track and cross country running events. She won her first world title in the 10,000 metres at the 2009 World Championships in Athletic ...

. Reflecting on the race, she said: "To run 15:32 is great for me and third was just what I aimed for." Twell suffered a fractured ankle competing in a cross-country race in Belgium in February 2011. A further foot injury in June 2012 ended her hopes of competing at the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

. Twell won the London 10,000 in 2018 and 2019.

Competition record

Circuit wins

* IAAF Cross Country Permit Meetings ** Belfast International (2009)

National titles

* British Championships ** 5000 m:

2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

** 10,000 m:

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

* British Indoor Championships ** 3000 m: 2016 *

BUCS British Universities and Colleges Sport (BUCS; ) is the governing body for higher education sport in the United Kingdom. Founded in 2008, BUCS is responsible for organising 54 inter-university sports in the United Kingdom, as well as represe ...

Championships: ** 5000 m: 2009 ** Cross Country: 2010

Circuit wins

Personal bests

*All information (excluding 400m) taken from IAAF profile.Biographies: Twell, Stephanie

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation and International Association of Athletics Federations and formerly abbreviated as the IAAF, is the international sports governing body, governing body for the sport ...

. Retrieved on 11 May 2022.

References

External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Twell, Stephanie 1989 births Living people Sportspeople from Colchester Scottish female middle-distance runners British female middle-distance runners Scottish female long-distance runners British female long-distance runners Scottish female cross country runners British female cross country runners Scottish female marathon runners British female marathon runners Olympic female middle-distance runners Olympic athletes for Great Britain Athletes (track and field) at the 2008 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics Commonwealth Games bronze medallists for Scotland Athletes (track and field) at the 2010 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2014 Commonwealth Games Athletes (track and field) at the 2018 Commonwealth Games World Athletics Championships athletes for Great Britain European Athletics Championships medalists European Athletics Rising Star of the Year winners British Athletics Championships winners Medallists at the 2010 Commonwealth Games 21st-century Scottish sportswomen Commonwealth Games bronze medallists in athletics