Jo Pavey

Jo Pavey is a long distance runner and is currently second on the all time list for 5000 metres.

Jo Pavey is a long distance runner and is currently second on the all time list for 5000 metres.

SPORT BIO

Jo had a glittering Junior career and set the UK Under 15 1500m record in 1988. She set championship best performances at the English Schools and AAA Under 15 Championships, marks that stood until 2003. She made her Junior international debut at the age of just 15 and it was to be a further eight years until she made her Senior debut for Britain at the World Championships in Athens.

That year (1997), she won the British Milers Club Grand Prix and greatly improved her personal best. Sadly she missed the next two years due to injury but ran 15:18.51 on her 5000m debut in 2000 and followed up with AAA Silver to earn selection for the Sydney Olympics. Her build-up to the Games included a personal best in Gateshead and she improved her 5000m time in Sydney with her first sub-15 minute performance in the final (14:58.27) to go fourth on the UK all-time lists.

She again ran well in 2001, including her first Senior AAA title in the 5000m and in 2002 was named in the Norwich Union GB Team for the European Cup, where she finished second. Later that year she finished fifth in both the Commonwealth Games and European Championships despite a virus.

Back to health by the end of the campaign, she smashed both 3000m and 5000m personal bests on the Grand Prix circuit. Pavey, coached by husband Gavin, made a rare cross country outing in 2003 and ran the 4km at the World Cross Country Championships, then clocked an impressive 8:41.89 to win the 3000m at the Lille Grand Prix. Her 1500m personal best was reduced to 4:02.03 in Rome and further good runs at that distance persuaded her to run that event at the World Championships rather than the 5000m. She finished tenth in Paris and then ended her track season with victory in the Rieti Grand Prix. 

She made a hugely impressive indoor debut at the Norwich Union Indoor Trials and AAA Championships where she went third on the UK all-time list. She continued her excellent form when breaking Liz McColgan’s UK indoor record at the Norwich Union Grand Prix in 2004. She finished third with Berhane Adere and Gabriela Szabo among those behind her and was fifth in a tactical 3000m at the World Indoor Championships.

Jo Pavey took part in the 5,000 metres at the Olympics in Athens and finished in an impressive fifth place. She did well to make the final after a series of injuries earlier in the season.

At the 2006 Commonwealth Games Jo Pavey took silver in the 5000m and finished fifth in the European Championships that same year.