2021 British Athletics Marathon and 20 km Walk Trial

It was the first time since 1980 that a dedicated marathon trial event was held, and the courses consisted of multiple laps around Kew Gardens in London.

Ben Connor and Tom Bosworth also qualified for the marathon and 20 km walk Olympic events respectively due to their finishing positions.

In November 2020, UK Athletics announced that a trial event for the British Olympic marathon places would be held on 26 March 2021 at Kew Gardens in London.

[1] UK Athletics had considered using the Manchester Marathon as a qualification event or holding a trial race either near Dorney Lake or outside the United Kingdom.

[4] The race organisers had proposed 25 different variations of courses, and the final selection was made to allow finishing times to be as quick as possible.

[11] Other competitors included Mo Aadan, Tom Evans, Josh Griffiths, and Chris Thompson,[3] who had won multiple Kew Gardens 10k events.

[3] The women's marathon race included Stephanie Davis, whose personal best of 2:27:40 was the fastest of any athletes at the event.

[6] Other competitors included British half-marathon champion Lily Partridge, Natasha Cockram and Naomi Mitchell, the two highest finishing Britons at the 2020 London Marathon, Sarah Inglis, Tracy Barlow, and Tish Jones.

[3] Charlie Purdue and Jess Piasecki, both of whom ran faster than the Olympic qualifying time in 2019, did not compete in the event.

[9] After 30 kilometres (19 mi) of the race, Thompson was dropped from the leading pack, which contained Ben Connor, Mo Aadan, and Dewi Griffiths.

[16] Prior to the final lap, Thompson had dropped Connor and Aadan, who were the only other runners left in the lead group.

[18] The women's marathon race was won by Stephanie Davis in a time of 2:27:16, which was fast enough to qualify for the Tokyo Games.

[9] On 1 April, it was announced that Jess Piasecki and Stephanie Twell had been given the two remaining spots for the women's marathon at the 2020 Summer Olympics.