Ava Lloyd

Happy birthday to Great Britain’s Ava Lloyd, who trains every day in the fastest room in British athletics and has just run the fastest 800m of her life.

On 11 July at the BMC Grand Prix in Watford, Ava ran 2:01.32 over 800m, a personal best. She owns a 4:06.45 for 1500m, she is ranked 73rd in the world over the distance, and in December she won her first international medal: bronze in the mixed relay at the European Cross Country Championships in Lagoa, on her senior GB debut, alongside Jack Higgins, Holly Dixon and Callum Elson.

The room is the story. Ava runs for M11 Track Club in Manchester, founded and coached by Trevor Painter, who was named World Athletics Coach of the Year in 2024, alongside Jenny Meadows. Her training partners include Keely Hodgkinson, the Olympic 800m champion, and Georgia Hunter Bell. European Athletics, previewing a championship, introduced her to the continent in exactly those terms: Ava Lloyd, a training partner of Keely Hodgkinson. Turning up to that session every day at twenty is its own kind of education, and it is not one that flatters anybody who is not ready for it.

She has been with Painter since she was twelve. She was second in the 800m at the English Schools Championships at thirteen. She won a British U20 indoor 800m title, made the 1500m final at the World U20 Championships in Lima and finished fifth, made the European U23 final in Bergen, and made her senior GB debut at the European Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn. She still races for Wigan and District Harriers, and she is reading English Literature at the University of Manchester.

Happy birthday, Ava! Many happy returns of the day, and here is to going under two. And so say all of us. 🎂🎁🎉🫶🫶🇬🇧