Hall 'starting from scratch' as London awaits

BBC News

26-04-2025

An enforced break through illness followed by the arrival of her two children has meant a rollercoaster few years for two-time Paralympic wheelchair racer Jade Hall.But with a renewed enthusiasm for the sport, she will line up in Sunday's London Marathon just 13 months after giving birth to her daughter via Caesarean section.Under her maiden name of Jones, the Middlesbrough racer, who was mentored by Paralympic great Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson and her husband Ian from the age of 12, made her Great Britain debut aged 15 and competed at European and World Championships and at the London and Rio Paralympics.She then switched to Para-triathlon, winning Commonwealth gold for England in 2018 in Australia, and was training for the Tokyo Paralympics before the Covid pandemic and then illness intervened.In mid-2020, after initially feeling like she had flu, Hall was diagnosed with pericarditis – inflammation of the lining around the heart, external which can cause chest pain and discomfort - and after recovering made the decision to take a break from elite sport and miss the Games."There was definitely a point where I didn't think I was going to be able to race again," the 29-year-old told BBC Sport."I was ill for about eight months and in that time everything was hard. My heart rate was elevated when I was just walking around and that was causing chest pains and other symptoms."From training every day to not being to train at all and not even being able to even go out for a walk or do something simple was pretty tough."I made the decision to focus on my recovery and forget about the Games because I needed to get healthy again and live a normal life."Hall and her husband and fellow wheelchair racer Callum decided to focus on having a family and after welcoming son Luca in February 2023, she returned to training and competed in the Manchester 10K race when he was 12 weeks old.Shortly afterwards, she discovered she was pregnant again and Bonnie arrived in March 2024."I've had a period of almost three years of being in and out of training and with the Caesarean, it's like I've started from scratch," she said."I feel like I've had a career before children and a career after and it's really hard to compare the two because they're just very different."Before I became unwell I was kind of feeling a bit tired and I felt like I didn't really know which direction I was going in."Having that forced break with the illness and then having the children made me realise that I do really love it."
Hall finished seventh in the New York Marathon in November, seven months after Bonnie's birth, and on Sunday returns to London, which she last raced in 2018.The field for the women's race is led by two-time winner and Paralympic champion Catherine Debrunner of Switzerland and American Susannah Scaroni, who won Monday's Boston Marathon. Briton Eden Rainbow-Cooper will hope to improve on her fourth place in Boston after struggling with a back injury since early last year.In the men's race, Swiss 'Silver Bullet' Marcel Hug will be aiming for his fifth win in a row - and seventh overall - to close in on David Weir's record of eight victories.For Hall, who is now focused solely on wheelchair racing rather than triathlon, the next Paralympics in Los Angeles in 2028 are a consideration but her short-term goals are more important."LA is at the back of my mind but I want to see how the next year goes and how I can earn my place back on the marathon circuit, so I feel like it's one step at a time for me right now," she said."I'm not just sacrificing my time any more, I'm sacrificing time with the children to go and train."I'm enjoying it - probably more than I ever have - and I want my children to be able to see me doing something positive with my life"Now it just feels different and it feels like it's bigger because it's a part of their life too."