This is the woman who inspired Emile Cairess to take up running as he hit the headlines by finishing third in the London Marathon and established himself as one of the world’s best long distance runners.
Emilie’s mother Alison Cairess lovingly hugs her son in a photograph taken when he was a schoolboy at Bradford Grammar school, where he was a top cross county runner.
But it was his keep-fit fanatic mother Alison who first got Emile into the sport as he attempted to keep up with her on her daily jogs when aged just four close to their home in Saltaire, West Yorkshire.
Alison, who worked as an art teacher before taking early retirement, was also a keen tennis player and swimmer but it was her love of jogging that influenced a young Emile to give up his first love of football to focus on running.
He joined Bingley Harriers Athletics Club where his talent was initially spotted but following Sunday’s stunning finish, where he became the second-fastest British marathon runner in history, a place at the Paris Olympics awaits this summer.
Alison Cairess (centre) lovingly hugs her son Emile in a photograph taken when he was a schoolboy at Bradford Grammar school
Emile hit the headlines by finishing third in the London Marathon and established himself as one of the world’s best long distance runners
Emile running at the London marathon this weekend where he finished in third place
No doubt a proud Alison will be cheering him on from the stands as he looks set to take up the mantle long held by Sir Mo Farah as the face of British long distance running and become an Olympic champion.
In a social media post, Alison revealed that she took early retirement in December 2019 so that she could focus on her sporting hobbies but months later, got Covid, which prevented her from exercising.
She wrote movingly how this had a devastating impact on her mental health, resulting in her hiring a personal fitness coach and that she was delighted with the outcome.
Alison, 61 wrote: ‘I initially found not being able to exercise very difficult to cope with and quite upsetting. I had lost a big part of who I was but that part has now returned and I am so pleased at the progress I am making.’
She added: ‘I am currently exercising for over an hour a day and coping with it really well. I walk, run, cycle, swim and complete S and C exercises too – all under the guidance of Ben. I would wholeheartedly recommended anybody battling away with fitness after Long Covid to work under his expert guidance too.’
Alison’s passion for sport and exercise rubbed off on Emile at a young age, even though it was football not running that initially motivated him.
In an interview with Athletics Weekly where he spoke about his love of football, he said: ‘I used to think I was really good. Whether I was, you’d have to ask other people.
‘I had an inflated view of my own skill. I was obsessed with Thierry Henry. I idolised him and still do to be fair.’
As Emile stands on the verge of running greatness, his achievement is a far cry from his humble beginnings in Yorkshire when he would pound the streets with Alison.
A bursary student at the Bradford Grammar, he has become the latest in a long line of top athletes to graduate from the £15,000-a-year private school, following in the footsteps of the Triathlete brothers Alastair and Jonathan Brownlee.
He would go on to study at St Mary’s University in London, where he combined his studies with distance running.
Away from the track and the roads, he struck up a blissful relationship with fellow athlete Georgia Yearby, which is still going strong six years later.
However, while she stuck to the shorter distances – mainly 800 metre track events – Emile continued his long distance aspirations.
Emile joined Bingley Harriers Athletics Club where his talent was initially spotted
Emile, pictured here with his girlfriend Georgia Yearby, has become one of Britain’s top long distance runners
The 26-year-old claimed a remarkable third place finish in the London Marathon on Sunday. Pictured: Emile (right), alongside first placed Alexander Mutiso Munyao of Kenya (centre) second placed Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia (left) on the podium after today’s race
His talent was there for all to see after he won a bronze in the 10,000 metres at the 2019 European Under-23 Championships.
More impressively he would win a silver at the 2022 European Cross Country Championships, finishing in second place behind Norwegian Jakob Ingebritsen who has since become one of the fastest 5,000 metre runners in the world.
He would also break the 30-year-old 10-mile record belonging to Richard Nerurkar – a fellow graduate of Bradford Grammar – with a time of 45.57.
Comparisons to Farah come readily – he has trained with Alan Storey, who previously coached the double Olympic champion.
He also equalled Farah’s 10,000 metre record on the road with a time of 27 minutes and 44 seconds at the age of 24, and Emile has been open about his admiration for his fellow Briton.
‘With Mo Farah, when I was younger and he was doing the 2012 Olympics, I was at such a different level that it felt like he was almost doing a different sport,’ he told Runner’s World last week.
He said that while his direct inspiration was runners in the year’s above him at school, it was a ‘really cool achievement’ to become the fastest Briton over 10,000 metres on the road.
‘If I’d told myself that when I was younger, I would’ve been shocked,’ he added.
However, he says Farah’s record was ‘there for the taking’ and has admitted it was one of his goals to equal or beat it while he was still in his early twenties.
Ambition to be the best drives him – Emile has said he wants to ‘set all the British road records’, being a firm believer that ‘without goals… it’s difficult to achieve big things’.
Emile learned his trade by racing in cross country races in Yorkshire when he was a teenager living in Bradford
The runner, pictured here (left) on the podium at a race in Ireland, decided to focus on running instead of football as a teenager
A young Emile Cairess holds a football trophy while wearing his football kit as a schoolboy
Emile Cairess runs along The Mall to a third place finish in Sunday’s London Marathon
Emile pictured alongside Mo Farah and two pacemakers in the 2023 London Marathon. He would go on to finish ahead of the double Olympic champion in the race
However it is the marathon which has been the focus of Emile’s attentions over recent years and is the event which had brought him into the public eye.
In 2023 on his London Marathon debut he finished in sixth place with a time of 2:08:07, an impressive achievement for someone with so little experience.
It was made even more impressive when it was found he ran the 26.2-mile course in shoes designed for 10km races, and wearing a Casio watch that wouldn’t have looked out of place in the 1970s.
Emile is coached by Italian Renato Canova, who has trained several marathon winners, and he has spent every January for the last three years in Kenya in a bid to reap the benefits of their system.
‘It’s really inspiring and humbling when you see how they achieve such success through a minimalistic lifestyle,’ he told Runner’s World.
‘In Britain, so many people get caught up in the minutiae of training and all the technology and specific food… they overcomplicate things.
‘In Kenya, life is really simple. Many Brits could learn a lot from Kenyan people’s attitude: just enjoy running and work really hard; do the basics such as sleeping and recovering well and that will lead to good performances.’
It paid off on Sunday, as he stormed to third place in the London Marathon with a time of 2:06:46, cutting nearly a minute-and-a-half from his time the year before.
It was the first time a British man had finished on the podium at the London Marathon since Farah managed it in 2018.
However, his time fell short of the 2:05:11 that Farah ran at the Chicago Marathon six years ago, which still stands as the British record.
