“It’s coming home”: Hannah Cockroft MBE returns for another Leeds 10K

We’re honoured to have Hannah Cockroft MBE and her partner Nathan Macguire joining us for the 15^th anniversary of the Leeds 10K on Sunday 3^rd July. These are two of the UK’s most accomplished wheelchair racers and, for Hannah, the Leeds 10K is where her career all began.

Until 2007, Hannah had been racing in a borrowed chair. Kitted out in t-shirts with Hannah’s picture on them, her dad and brother put together a team and ran the very first Leeds 10K to raise money for her first racing wheelchair. The following year, she returned for the 2008 Leeds 10K in her new racing chair and, as they say, the rest is history.

Hannah’s taken on the Leeds 10K most years since then. “It’s like coming home,” she says. “I’m a Yorkshire girl from Halifax, so it’s always nice to come back and remember where you’re from. Everything that’s happened since has come from the Leeds 10K.”

Hannah’s partner Nathan Macguire took on his first Leeds 10K with Hannah in 2019, and was proud to set a new course record. He’ll be joining her again this year, along with their teammate Sammi Kinghorn and Nathan’s parents.

While Nathan and Hannah are both accomplished athletes, for Nathan’s mum, this will be her first ever race. After recovering from a severe case of Covid-19, she decided to take on a challenge. She did Couch to 5K and is looking forward to taking part in the Leeds 10K with her family. “There are always so many stories like that at Leeds,” Nathan says. “And there’s such an atmosphere, a buzz, a feeling of achievement.”

Despite being competitive athletes, Hannah and Nathan are firm in the belief that it doesn’t matter where you place. “Just give it a go,” Nathan says. “Your personal best is your personal best.” They agree that it’s best to think of an event as racing against yourself, rather than against the other competitors, and that nothing can replicate the sense of achievement you get from challenging yourself and crossing that finish line.

As well as the supportive atmosphere, Hannah loves the “Yorkshire pride” that defines the Leeds 10K. “As an elite athlete, you sometimes forget where you came from,” she explains. “It’s so different to being at elite race meets. It reminds you where you’re from and what you do it for. Yorkshire people are always pleased to see you, and everything they do, they do it with pride.”

The couple are looking forward to being around the cheering crowd again after attending the Tokyo Paralympics last year. It was a successful games for them - Hannah set a 100m world record and won two gold medals, while Nathan brought home a silver to “add to the family medal tally” and also took on his first individual event. However, they both struggled with the lack of crowds, and described how strange it was being in an empty stadium built to hold 80,000 people.

Still, “it’s always an honour to represent our country.” Both athletes are busy preparing for the Birmingham Commonwealth Games kicking off in less than a month. They’ll be taking part in the World Para Athletics Championships in 2023 and the Paris Paralympics in 2024.

However, before these big competitions, they’re looking forward to taking part in the more relaxed Leeds 10K. We’re so glad Hannah and Nathan found time in their busy schedule to celebrate 15 years with us - we can’t wait to see them there!