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Georgia Bell goes from Parkrun to Olympic bronze – while working in cyber security
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From Parkrun to Olympic 1500 metres bronze in 18 months: Georgia Bell has just completed one of the most stirring transformations ever seen by a British athlete. Under pristine blue skies at Stade de France, the 30-year-old ascended to sport’s top table, taking a staggering four seconds off her personal best to capture this rapturously received medal. To think, it was only last year that her proudest achievement in athletics was running 5km in just over 16 minutes at Bushy Park. Now, thanks to a combination of colossal talent and inexhaustible self-belief, she graces an Olympic podium.
“I just didn’t know journeys like this existed,” Bell said this summer. Her incredulity was magnified tenfold at this performance, as she somehow found the strength to overhaul Ethiopia’s Diribe Welteji over the final metres to cross the line in 3min 52.61sec, a British record. Here was a woman who, at one stage, had just about given up on her track career. An English schools champion for 800m in 2008, she struggled to convert that precocious promise, until a remarkable Parkrun time with a minimum of training convinced her to believe in second chances.
This was a more lavish reward than she had dared imagine. Bell works full-time in cyber security, using artificial intelligence to find out how companies’ computer systems are being hacked. But in what has passed for downtime, she has nurtured an outlandish dream and found a way to bring it to glorious fruition. An athlete who had settled simply on running for “fun and fitness” has delivered, spectacularly, on the most daunting stage of all.
It is Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows, Keely Hodgkinson’s coaches, who have helped make it happen. Bell first contacted Painter in early 2023, in a fit of excitement about her Parkrun numbers, and together the two have worked furiously ever since to capitalise on all her untapped potential. Having rediscovered her love of running during the pandemic, she wanted to see how far her continuous improvement could take her. Now she knows. It is one of the most heartwarming reinventions British track-and-field has known.
This season alone, Bell, the daughter of Channel Five News political editor Andy Bell, has carved 14 seconds off her 1500m best. She knows when to time her surges, too, edging past Welteji to trail home Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon – now a triple Olympic champion over this distance – and Jessica Hull of Australia. She relegated her compatriot Laura Muir, who has had so many near-misses at global level, to fifth. Muir was generous in praise, describing Bell’s achievement as “unbelievable”.
Hardly surprisingly, Bell raised her hands to her head in disbelief. After all, she only returned to athletics full-time little over a year ago, after a spell in duathlon. Today, she can count herself as Olympic medallist and British record-holder, with a time that sits third on the European all-time list.
Bell has profited from a summer sabbatical from her nine-to-five job to pursue her Olympic ambitions, and the plan has worked wonders. Travelling fortnightly to Manchester to join Painter’s cohort, which includes Hodgkinson, she achieved a European silver medal this year despite suffering an infected spike wound in the heats that left her struggling to walk. That gave her the conviction, in her words, that she could “get it done even when things are going wrong”. She could reflect here that everything went just about as well as she could have possibly hoped.
She finds herself improving in just about every event that she applies herself to, from the 1500m all the way through to the 10,000m. Bell has cultivated a dual persona, calling herself an “ambitious and hard-working cybersecurity expert/running nerd”. On her LinkedIn site are two photographs: one of her in smart business clothes in the office lift, the second of her a picture of grace on the track.
Inadvertently, Steve Cram helped inspire her. “Thankfully work has been very supportive,” Bell told Telegraph Sport this year. “I think Steve did me a favour at the world indoors when he said something like: ‘Ah, Georgia Bell, she’s working full-time but she must know that if she puts her focus on this she could make the Olympics.’”
She was convinced. “With Q1 closed out, it’s time for me to put all my focus on aiming for the Olympic Games in Paris,” she wrote. She can consider it mission accomplished.
In the circumstances, it was hard not to feel for Muir, who ran a fabulous race but was yet again denied at the death. “Faith and I have been in global finals together since 2015,” she said. “I’ve known her very well – she’s amazing. Jess [Hull] won her first medal and I’m really close to her, too. But Georgia has done absolutely brilliantly. It’s a very nice podium. I’m just sad I’m not on it.”
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Team GB take three bronzes: As it happened:
08:58 PM BST
Athletics medal table
Utter dominance from the US…
08:40 PM BST
GB medal table on penultimate day
Here’s how GB’s table looks with just one athletics race – the women’s marathon tomorrow morning at 7am – left, but plenty of medal chances in the velodrome to come.
08:36 PM BST
Women’s relay bronze…
08:35 PM BST
Men’s relay bronze…
08:31 PM BST
Records shattered
No foul for Jamaica’s baton drop, an inconspicuous collision with the Irish athlete. That really is an outrageous run by the US, and by Femke Bol to beat Anning to silver – that’s the Dutch woman’s third medal this week, one of each colour.
Like the last race, it was run at furious pace and all of the top five run national records.
For GB, it’s a 10th athletics medal in Paris, a fifth bronze on top of four silvers and Keely Hogkinson’s sole gold.
08:23 PM BST
Bronze for GB!
A third bronze of the evening! The US take gold by a huge margin, running the second fastest time ever, not beating the Soviet Union’s 1988 world record.
Anning is taken by the superstar that is Femke Bol in the final straight, but she holds off Ireland for bronze!
08:21 PM BST
Amber Anning going for gold
In second going into the final straight
08:21 PM BST
Third leg done
Foregone conclusion for the US, France, Ireland and the Netherlands scrapping GB for a medal as Femke Bol takes on the last leg.
08:20 PM BST
Second leg done
Jamaica have dropped the baton, one less contender for Britain as the US coast well clear. GB in fourth at present and falling back…
08:19 PM BST
First leg done
Ohuruogu is reeled in by the USA’s Little, and hands over in fourth place behind the US, France, and Jamaica, work for Nielsen and GB to do here.
08:18 PM BST
Onto the women’s 4x400m relay
The last event of the evening and GB in lane seven to begin with, team as follows:
Victoria Ohuruogu, Laviai Nielsen, Nicole Yeargin, and Amber Anning. France qualify in third, USA in first, sandwiching the Britons. Come on great Britain!
08:15 PM BST
US break Olympic record for relay gold
That race was run in breathtaking pace, Rai Benjamin’s last leg, albeit from a running start, was just under world record pace – he’s a hurdler by trade! It’s an Olympic record for the US as they cross in 2 minutes 54 seconds, the subsequent five teams all running national records.
GB were out of it by the time Lewis Davey was on the back straight in the third leg, Matt Hudson-Smith failing to assert a significant advantage, or an advantage at all as an indictment of just how well Botswana and the US ran. Given Botswana’s limited resource, running a relay that well is a truly remarkable achievement.
08:11 PM BST
Kerr takes high jump gold
The moment McEwan and Kerr opted against sharing gold was icily brief, which you love to see. Kerr wins in the end, prevailing at 2.34m after McEwan fails it first. The subplot is that Qatar’s Essa Mutaz Barshim wins bronze, completing his medal set across four Olympics, solidifying himself as one of the best field athletes ever.
His Tokyo gold was a shared one, none of that today…
08:07 PM BST
Bronze for GB, gold for USA
Botswana and the US were clear, 400m hurdles champion Rai Benjamin taking on the 200m champion Letsile Tebogo, and Benjamin’s endurance pays dividends!
In the back straight France are tripped, but no one was catching Charles Dobson who had daylight either side of him. Thrilling finish up top, straight forward medal for GB
08:04 PM BST
Third leg done
200m champion Tebogo takes the baton behind the US, Britain behind in third
08:04 PM BST
Second leg done
It’s extremely tight between GB, Botswana, and the US as Lewis Davey takes the baton
08:03 PM BST
First leg done
Haydock-Wilson kicks us off in a joint lead, Botswana leading as Hudson Smith enters the back straight.
08:02 PM BST
Men’s 4x400m imminent
Britain’s team is as follows: Alex Haydock-Wilson, Matthew Hudson-Smith, Lewis Davey, Charles Dobson – Samuel Reardon and Toby Harries replaced by Haydock-Wilson and Lewis Davey.
USA have also replaced Quincy Wilson, the 16-year-old nearly costing his team with a poor baton exchange in the heats.
07:59 PM BST
High jumpers fail 2.36m
The bar is lowered after each failure and both men falter at 2.36 despite both clearing it earlier. Now to 2.34 which Kerr jumped first time earlier, McEwan passing on his third attempt…
07:57 PM BST
Japan’s Haruka Kitaguchi wins javelin gold
The drama in the javelin is a bit subdued in comparison to the high jump, the athletes’ efforts curtailing as fatigue sets in.
Kitaguchi’s first throw of 65.80 was therefore enough for gold, South Africa’s Jo-Ane van Dyk’s third throw of 63.93m 25cm clear Czechia’s Nikola Ogrodnikova to finish off the podium.
07:52 PM BST
Jump off for gold
No sharing this time, as opposed to Tokyo when Gianmarco Tamberi and Essa Mutaz Barshim shared it. The ‘last failure’ countback rule has been ditched, the two speak briefly and refuse those pleasantries and they’ll continue to jump for 2.38m – Kerr may regret abandoning his jump earlier when the pressure was off!
07:49 PM BST
Or is it gold for Kerr?
Rumours of a jump off…
07:49 PM BST
Hamish Kerr wins high jump gold
The second of the joint Tokyo Champions, Qatar’s Essa Mutaz Barshim bows out at 2.36m, leaving the USA’ Shelby McEwan and New Zealand’s Hamish Kerr as the only two remaining. It’s advantage Kerr given he jumped 2.34 first time, whilst McEwan needed all three attempts, so his gold is confirmed upon McEwan’s third fail at 2.38m.
He takes his last jump as a victory lap, looking for outright victory… and aborts the jump comically, diving under the bar! It’s gold nevertheless!
07:42 PM BST
Hear from fifth placed Laura Muir
“You know what, I’m just really happy with it. I ran the fastest I ever have, I can’t ask any more. I ran perfectly what I wanted to. I just knew I had to run my own race, they went off so fast at the start.
“I picked off so many people, unfortunately just 10m too short but I ran absolutely what I wanted to and fastest time I ever have.
“I can’t complain but congrats to Georgia – absolutely amazing.
“I just know with my physiology I run my fastest times like that and they went so fast. I just knew if I did that I’d be out the back door.
“I had to run my own race and I’m really glad I did that. I was patient and I don’t know if I would have run much faster any other way. I ran the fastest I ever have.
“I can’t ask for any more and yeah that was the plan it worked unfortunately it wasn’t quite fast enough.”
07:35 PM BST
Thrilling finish
Here’s Bell’s medal moment, some finish, textbook. Muir finished strongly too but had given herself far too much to do.
07:33 PM BST
Disbelief for Bell
It’s her Olympic debut, and whilst Laura Muir’s significant 1500m pedigree has understandably kept Bell on the periphery of British conversation, she did come fourth in this world championships, so this is no fluke. She was in disbelief either way, though:
07:27 PM BST
Kipyegon dominant
It’s an Olympic record and third straight Olympic gold for Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon in the 1500m – she also won 5000m silver in Paris – what an athlete! Bell beats Muir’s national record, the Scotswoman coming through in fifth. Bell seemed consigned to fourth with 100m to go but dug deep to overtake Ethiopia’s Diribe Welteji with about 10m to go, and very nearly beat Jessica Hull. That finish was all mentality, a thoroughly deserved medal against the odds.
Muir was bizarrely conservative in the first 900m, and the effort it took to get back in the pack was surely costly.
07:20 PM BST
Georgia Bell takes bronze
It’s a medal for GB, but it’s come from an unexpected place! Fifth for Muir, Kipyegon in first as Australia’s Jessica Hull just about holds off Bell’s excellent sprint finish!
07:18 PM BST
Last lap
Muir has made her way back into the pack but it took some effort. Bell still there but Kipyegon has led from the start…
07:17 PM BST
Muir struggling with frantic pace
Unlike the men’s 5000m, this race is off at a frantic pace and Muir is left by the wayside with two laps to go. georgia Bell still in the leading pack though.
07:16 PM BST
Laura Muir up next
One of Britain’s biggest medal hopes. Her third Olympic final as she looks to continue her rise from seventh in Rio, to silver in Tokyo. Faith Kipyegon from Kenya a clear favourite as the only woman to run sub 3 minutes 50 this year.
07:14 PM BST
Convincing victory
The three Ethiopians, including Hagos Gebrhiwet whose PB is 12.36, left it late before making their move and were left for dead with ease by Jakob Ingebrigtsen in effortless fashion. They never recovered, losing out on podium spots to Kenya’s Ronald Kwemoi in second and the USA’s Grant Fisher in third, both two seconds behind the Norwegian as five athletes came through between the 13.15 and 13.16 mark.
George Mills came second to last as a supplementary demonstration of the importance of race pace, his PB is 15 seconds quicker than Ingebrigtsen’s winning time but was out of the race with 1200m to go.
07:08 PM BST
Ingebrigtsen coasts to gold
Gold, redemption for the Norwegian! A slow race really plays into his hands, he has plenty in the tank to coast clear in the last lap, it was a foregone conclusion with 150m to go. 13 minutes 13 is the winning time, 25 seconds slower than his PB but a seasonal best, which suggests all of his eggs were in the 1500m basket.
Nevertheless, the pace was pedestrian for this field’s standards, and the shorter distant specialist had too much pace for anyone to compete with. He took considerable flak for his 1500m humiliation, this will feel good I’m sure.
07:04 PM BST
Final lap
All three Ethiopians lead out, Ingebrigtsen the only man to keep up…
07:03 PM BST
Mills towards back with three laps to go
He’s gone from the front of the pack to the back in the space of about two laps, as two Ethiopian athletes put the pedal down to thin out the pack.
Ingebrigtsen is still there, if he can stay put his shorter distance speed may prove decisive.
07:00 PM BST
Slow start to the 5000m
We’re about halfway through the race and the whole pack is still together, never a good sign when PBs in the field have a 25 second plus range. There are a few of these 13 sub-13 minute runners holding back here, here’s hoping for a quick finish.
It does mean Belgium’s John Heymans is still involved, which I’m sure his mum will be delighted about…
06:57 PM BST
Tamberi out of high jump
Joint defending champion Gianmarco Tamberi is out of the high jump, failing to clear 2.27m, quite far away from the 2.37m he won Tokyo with. Frankly, he looks ghastly. Aesthetically, and competitively, it seems clear that the kidney stones rumours are true.
06:52 PM BST
5000m soon
A certain Jakob Ingebrigtsen is lining up, looking to recover from his shock 1500m fourth place when he and Josh Kerr were beaten unexpectedly by Cole Hocker. He has plenty 5000m pedigree, winning world championships in 2022 and 2023 in it, notably recovering from disappointment in 1500m in the 2023 edition.
George Mills is also here, but it’s unlikely he can trouble Ingrebrigtsen or some of the East African favourites like Hagos Gebrhiwet of Ethiopia and Jacob Krop of Kenya.
Last night’s women’s 10,00m was frustratingly slow relative to the world records in that race, especially given four of the seven fastest women in history in that race were competing. There are 13 sub 13 minute men in this race, so hopefully it can live up to the considerable potential.
06:45 PM BST
Cyrena Samba-Mayela saves face
Astoundingly, that’s France’s first medal of any colour in the track and field, it’s been a disappointing time in the Stade de France since Antoine Dupont led the rugby 7s team to gold there.
06:40 PM BST
France denied gold in photo finish
The Stade de France erupts!! Cyrena Samba-Mayela dips to the finish and the stadium were convinced she’d got it but she’s pipped by 0.01 seconds by the USA’s Masai Russell. Camacho-Quinn was reeled in after establishing an early lead and takes bronze for Puerto Rico, beaten by 0.02 seconds to silver. Incredible finish.
06:37 PM BST
100m hurdles incoming
No British interest in this, Cindy Sember falling in her semi-final to deny her what could’ve been a very possible chance of a final. Three US athletes in the middle lanes here, as well as defending champion Jasmine Camacho-Quinn…
06:33 PM BST
Javelin about to start
The women’s javelin throwers are being introduced in this new, yet already ubiquitous boxing-like fashion. The men’s competition was won by Pakistan’s Arshad Nadeem who threw a massive Olympic record of 92.97m to win, defending Indian champion Neeraj Chopra throwing four fouls from five attempts as he failed to live up to his country’s significant hype levels.
06:21 PM BST
Burgin last in thrilling finish
On his Olympics debut it was always going to be a different level today for the 22-year-old. It’s a rapid final, four runners finishing in less than a second off David Rudisha’s 2012 world record, won by Rudisha’s Kenyan compatriot Emmanuel Wanyonyi.
He had to fend off significant interest from Canada’s Marco Arop, with Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati finishing off the podium.
06:17 PM BST
400m to go
Burgin in the leading group at the bell but being left behind now as France’s home favourite Tual makes his move…
06:16 PM BST
800m imminent
Max Burgin is out first in a stacked field. Algeria’s Djamel Sedjati has yet to lose in 2024, Emmanuel Wanyonyi is world number one whilst Spain’s Mohamed Attaoui has run sub one minute 45 in qualifying
06:09 PM BST
High jump under-way
A particularly flamboyant entrance from Tokyo champion Gianmarco Tamberi, who is favourite owing to fellow Tokyo champion Mutaz Essa Barshim’s injury concerns.
It’s what the sport needs amidst ongoing talks to revolutionise athletics, with former 400m and 200m Olympic champion Michael Johnson suggesting a transformative grand slam format that draws inspiration from sports such as tennis and golf but excludes field events. It’s something that the likes of Jazmine Sawyers and Jessica Ennis-Hill have publicly voiced concern about – approving the format but condemning the exclusion of field.
Tamberi briefly leaves the stadium, it’s rumoured he has kidney stones, but he’s back now and will jump shortly.
05:54 PM BST
Tonight’s running order
The men’s high jump is the first event of the evening, kicking us off at 18.00, featuring the joint defending Olympic champions Gianmarco Tamberi of Italy and Mutaz Essa Barshim of Qatar who has recovered from injury to jump for a fourth consecutive Olympic medal.
Max Burgin will run in the first race of the evening, the 800m scheduled for 18.15.
The javelin will then get under-way at 18.30, before the women’s 110m hurdles at 18.35. It’s then George Mills in the 5km scheduled for 18.50, followed by Laura Muir and Georgia Bell in the 1500m at 19.15.
There’s then a bit of a delay for some medal ceremonies and presumably the conclusion of the two field events, before the evening climaxes with the men’s, then women’s 4x400m relays from 20.00.
05:31 PM BST
4x400m relay Britain’s biggest hopes for gold
Good afternoon and welcome to a medal-saturated afternoon of athletics as the Stade de France hosts the penultimate day of Olympics action in Paris.
GB’s start to the day in athletics has been a relatively good one, Emile Cairess’ fourth place in the marathon the best British finish in that race for 40 years. His stellar efforts haven’t produced a medal, but do show that Britain can’t be written off from podium contention ahead of an afternoon that is looking slightly bleak in that regard.
Laura Muir is perhaps the strongest shot at an individual medal, the Scotswoman finished second in the 1500m in Tokyo but her qualifying time is a few seconds off the leading pace ahead of her race scheduled for 19.15 – she will run alongside Britain’s European Championship silver medallist Georgia Bell.
There’s plenty of fresh inspiration for Britain’s other runners – Team GB doesn’t feature in the women’s javelin nor men’s high jump in the field – courtesy of a medal-laden evening yesterday. Max Burgin runs in the men’s 800m, and will hope to replicate the PB that Katarina Johnson-Thompson ran in that race on her way to a long-awaited Olympic medal, her 5.72 second lead over Belgian athletics great Naffi Thiam not quite enough to secure gold.
Team GB also features in the two climax races of the evening, the men and women’s 4x400m, and they’ll try and emulate the bronze and silver that their respective 4x100m counterparts won last night. There’s no rain forecast in the Stade de France today, so baton changes can hopefully function a bit smoother. The men’s 4x400m, led by individual silver medallist Matt Hudson-Smith, are in with a particularly good chance for gold having qualified in second, just over a second behind Botswana, whilst the women also qualified in second, but a bigger margin behind favourites USA.
Elsewhere, George Mills, son of former England footballer Danny, runs in the 5000m final having been reinstated after he fell in his heat – he’s accompanied by the controversial Frenchman Hugo Hay, who he attributed the blame for that fall. Strap in and enjoy the last evening of Olympics athletics for four years!
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