A marathon effort! How Emile Cairess went from Bradford schoolboy inspired to run by his mother's daily jogs to Britain's second-fastest marathoner EVER after finishing third in London today - and now has his sights set on the Olympics

When Emile Cairess was a boy he wanted nothing more than to keep up with his mother as they ran through the streets of West Yorkshire.

Inspired by his mother, who was jogging to keep fit, the then-four-year-old was struggled to make it around the block, let alone keep pace with his mother.

But now at the age of 26, he can leave not only his beloved mother behind, but also many of the world's best long distance runners and enjoying a blissful life with his athlete girlfriend, Georgia Yearby.

It was a fact that was clear for all to see as he took a remarkable third place at the London Marathon today, becoming the second-fastest British marathon runner on in history.

A place at the Paris Olympics this summer awaits for the boy from Bradford, as he looks set to take up the mantle long held by Sir Mo Farah as the face of British long distance running.

It's a far cry from his humble beginnings in the north of England, and things could have gone very different. 

When he was just a teenager Emile was forced to choose between his two great loves of running and football.

A lover of Thierry Henry, Emile was a right-winger in the mould of his Arsenal idol, but a realisation that he was unlikely to make it to the top helped with his decision to pick athletics instead, alongside the pedigree of his school.

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. 

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'.

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.

He is keen to break Farah's British record of 2:05:11, win an Olympic medal and lower his own personal best in the event to 2 hours and three minutes. 

'I want to run as fast as possible and I feel like I can run a lot quicker than that in the future,' he told The Guardian before this year's event. 

'An Olympic medal is also my goal – definitely for Los Angeles. Although for this Olympics, if I can qualify, then I would like to be competitive. I wouldn't be going there just to make up the numbers.'

While he hoped to become an international-standard distance runner, there is always a sliver of doubt about whether any athlete will make the grade and as with any long distance runner, the key to his performance is in the preparation. 

He 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.

Cairess told Athletics Weekly before the race that he was not expecting records this weekend, but expressed confidence at bettering Farah's time 'fairly soon'.

'I think I can beat that time at some point,' Cairess revealed. 'In the future I want to go quite a bit faster than it and I want to be competitive in races like the London Marathon and the Olympics.

'A marathon takes time, though. Even if your training has gone well, you can’t do this time or that time, you have to take it slowly. It’s a process. I have to be patient.'

With his impressive time, Emile followed his Leeds City club-mate and training partner Phil Sesemann in booking his place at the Paris Olympics. 

Fellow Brit Mahamed Mahamed, who finished fourth in the London Marathon today after a similarly impressive performance, is also in the hat for a spot on Team GB.

He dedicated his performance in this year's marathon to his cousin who was in a car crash six months ago.

He said: 'I felt good but it was windy. I stuck to my race plan to move into third place. I'm really proud of that. It pretty much means I'm selected for the team, I'll definitely be there. 

'I needed to do another marathon before the Olympics, it's a risk that paid of. I don't think I had the fitness for the British record.' 

Despite the similarities, he is reluctant to invite too much comparison to Farah, insisting they are 'completely different athletes'.

He told The Guardian: 'He was one of the best ever. He absolutely dominated the Olympics and world championships and I'm never going to reach that level. 

'I feel like a road runner and he was more on the track. Also, we're not the same kind of person.'

So maybe not the new Mo Farah, but perhaps the same Emile Cairess.