Yorkshireman targeting Mo Farah's national marathon mark of 2:05:11 in London this year, but insists he has bigger targets in mind.

Emile Cairess is very matter of fact about one of the targets he will have in mind when he toes the start line of the London Marathon again on April 26. The 28-year-old is planning to remove a healthy chunk from his PB of 2:06:46 by taking down Mo Farah’s British record of 2:05:11, set in Chicago in 2018, and in doing so overtake the record for the fastest time by a Briton on the London Marathon course (Farah’s 2:05:39 from 2019).

But Cairess wants more than that. He is delighted that British standards are rising and that this year’s domestic battle at his home marathon major will include four athletes who have run under 2:07, as well as New York fourth placer Patrick Dever.

However, the man who finished third in London two years ago has wider horizons than being crowned marathon king of his own country. He has designs on cementing himself as a contender on the world marathon stage. 

It looked like he was doing just that in 2024, following his London podium performance up with a fourth place at the Paris Olympics. However an ankle tendon injury meant he missed a vital chunk of training last year and his only marathon outing of 2025 came in the stifling heat and humidity of the world championships in Tokyo, where he failed to finish. 

Illness might have prevented him from joining in on the record-breaking extravaganza at the recent Valencia 10km, but Cairess insists he is back and better than ever. His strength was underlined when he acted as a pacemaker for Alex Yee to a time of 2:06:37 at the Valencia Marathon in December, a mark which meant the Olympic triathlon champion leapfrogged him into second on the all-time British marathon rankings.

If Cairess has his way, those rankings will need a reshuffle soon, and the Yorkshireman betrayed his ambition when explaining why he chose not to run the full marathon distance in Spain. 

“I was the pacemaker for the 2:06 group so my first job was to get to 30km in the pace they asked for,” he said on a media call to announce his return to London in the spring. “Once I got to 30km, my mind was more on [my friend] Phil [Sesemann] and trying to make sure that I did the best for him to have a good race. 

“I wasn't tempted to finish at all, because say I did finish and I picked it up a little bit, it would have just been a small PB, and that's not reflective of where I'm at. If I’d seen my name on the results and it said 2:06, and two minutes behind an athlete like Amanal Petros (second in 2:04:03) or [Norway’s Awet Nftalem Kibrab, third in 2:04:24] I would have been disappointed. I definitely wasn't tempted to finish.”

Asked about the standards of British marathon running, Cairess added: “It's nice to see that we're getting to a much better standard than perhaps five or six years ago. We’ve got four athletes now under 2:08 and even though Paddy [Dever] has not run as quick a time, he's only done one [marathon] and it was a really good race in New York, which was definitely worth a lot quicker. I guess the faster British people run, the better for everyone. 

“But then, with regards to the competition, I'm always keeping my eyes forward and trying to compete with the top Kenyans and Ethiopians. That's where I'm looking. I'm not really focused on being the best of British and I think that kind of mentality leads to performances on a bigger scale. That's where I'm at.”

Doing so would mean bridging a sizeable gap. The men’s race in London last year was won by Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe in 2:02:27, for example, and African dominance continues when it comes to the marathon scene. However, Cairess believes there has been a noticeable change in mentality among the European contenders. 

“[Uganda’s Jacob] Kiplimo really advanced the half marathon record, and [Kenya’s Kelvin] Kiptum really brought on the marathon one but it was more that the Europeans maybe didn't maybe believe in themselves as much and then maybe didn't invest themselves as much into training, as they are doing now, because I think it just takes one or two athletes to see that things are possible and change people's minds.

“It's a snowball in terms of the more athletes do well, then there's more belief. My coach, also talks about athletes from the 80s and how we already had athletes like Seb Coe running 3:29 for 1500m and a lot of guys were running 27:30 [for 10,000m] back in the day. I think maybe we just got away from training hard and really believing in ourselves, and think people are back to that now.”

Cairess also has ambitions on the track this summer. He is planning to hook up with world bronze medallist and European 10km and half marathon record-holder Andreas Almgren to prepare for the Commonwealth and European Championships 10,000m. All of that will come after London, however, where is hoping that all of his training work will pay off.  

“I feel like I was in [British marathon record] kind of shape around the Olympics in 2024 and I've done a lot of training since then. I've improved a lot, I've been a bit unlucky in the way that I haven’t been able to show it. I'm looking to run as fast as I can, and hopefully it's beyond that British record.

“When you have a good year like 2024 then people just naturally expect that things will just keep on progressing, but it doesn't always work like that. It's just part and parcel of being an athlete and I think if you can't deal with the setbacks, then usually you don't get to a good level.”

2026 TCS London Marathon: British male entry list

(Personal bests in brackets)

Emile Cairess (2:06:46)

Mahamed Mahamed (2:07:05)

Philip Sesemann (2:07:10)

Patrick Dever (2:08:58)

Weynay Ghebresilasie (2:09:50)

Tewelde Menges (2:09:58)

George James (2:10:10)

Jake Smith (2:11:00)

Marc Scott (2:11:19)

Jack Rowe (2:12:31)

Andrew Fyfe (2:13:20)

Alex Milne (2:14:03)

Peter Le Grice (2:14:45)

Sean Hogan (2:14:51)

Christopher Thomas (2:14:55)

Jake Barraclough (2:14:55)

Chris Perry (2:14:57)

David Bishop (2:15:16)

Charlie Sandison (2:15:38)

William Mycroft (2:15:54)

Alfie Manthorpe (Debut)