The elite field has been announced for The Big Half 2025, which takes place on Sunday, 7 September.

The elite races are part of The Big Half community running festival, which has 25,000 people registered to take part across three mass participation events: The Big Half, the UK’s most diverse half marathon; The New Balance Big Relay, which enables teams to tackle the half marathon distance; and The Big Mile for children and families, which is free to enter.

The defending champion Jack Rowe (Aldershot, Farnham & District) is aiming for an epic third straight win at The Big Half. Meanwhile, the women's field is headlined by three-time champion (2018, 2019, 2021) Charlotte Purdue (Aldershot, Farnham & District AC, PB 68:02) plus two of the fastest female British half-marathon runners of all time: Jess Warner-Judd (Blackburn, PB 67:06) and Samantha Harrison (Mansfield, PB 67:08).

Should Rowe succeed in his ambition to win a third consecutive The Big Half title, he will join Sir Mo Farah as a triple champion (2018, 2019, 2022) and become the first athlete to win the event in three consecutive years.

Jack Rowe (PB 61:08) leads a four-man line up with sub-62 minutes credentials. Hoping to upset the form book are Paulos Surafel (Thames Valley Harriers, PB 61:21), Dewi Griffiths (Swansea Harriers AC, PB 61:33), and Adam Clarke (Aldershot, Farnham & District AC, PB 61:54).
  
Warner-Judd, who represented Great Britain at three World Championships and the 2021 Olympic Games, is the fourth fastest British woman over the half-marathon distance, while Harrison, who was ninth in the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships in 2023, is fifth on the British all-time list.

David Weir, who also has a trio of The Big Half victories (2019, 2022, 2023), leads the elite men’s wheelchair entries. Eden Rainbow-Cooper, who won The Big Half in 2022, heads the elite women's wheelchair racers.

The Big Half is a world-class mass participation event, organised by London Marathon Events. The community event was first held in 2018 and runs through four London boroughs: Greenwich, Lewisham, Southwark, and Tower Hamlets.

Previous results and news stories are at the runABC South race listing here.

Photo of Jack Rowe winning in 2024 courtesy of The Big Half