Fish hooks first call for England (From Lancashire Telegraph)

Fish hooks first call for England

8:32am Friday 19th June 2009 in

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Ben Fish has received his first international call and will represent England in the marathon after just three races over the distance.

The popular Blackburn Harrier took up the event less than two years ago and feels he is still learning, in terms of both training and race judgement, but his decision to switch has paid off earlier than expected.

His England debut will be in Toronto on September 27 where teams from Canada and Mexico are expected to be among the opponents.

Fish won his place after clocking 2:22:22 at the Paris marathon in early April despite not being invited to start with the elite athletes – a situation that should change from now on.

At 27, Fish feels that there is still plenty more to come, and he will be able to call on the experience of club mates Michael Green and Evan Cook who have both run in Toronto.

The American-based Green also made his England debut there, while Cook used to live in Canada and has completed the race several times, winning the veteran title.

Until now, his best achievement was winning the Inter Counties 10,000m championship.

But the versatile runner from Darwen is equally at home on track, road, fell and country and last year was highly ranked in every distance from five kilometres to marathon.