Callum Hawkins is a British distance runner, who competed in the marathon at the 2016 Summer Olympics. He is the Scottish record holder in the marathon and the British all-time number three at that distance behind Mo Farah and Steve Jones. Hawkins is also the all-time Great Britain number two in the half marathon. He is the Great Scottish Run course record holder and was the first British man to win that event in 23 years.
Personal life
Hawkins was born on 22 June 1992 in Elderslie near Paisley. He has an elder brother Derek. Callum and Derek were encouraged to take up distance running, and are trained by their father Robert, a former international runner. In 2010–2012 Hawkins competed for the Butler University in the United States, earning all-American status, and winning the 2011 Men's Athlete of the Year award for the Great Lakes Region. He was the first athlete from the Butler University to win the award. After that he studied mechanical engineering at the University of the West of Scotland. Some time before 2013 he had two surgeries on his left knee.
Athletics
At the 2010 IAAF World Cross Country Championships held in Bydgoszcz, Poland, Hawkins finished 47th in the junior men's race in a time of 24 minutes and 21 seconds. In 2013 he finished seventh in the men's under-23's race at the European Cross Country Championships. At the 2014 European Cross Country Championships he improved to a fifth-place finish in the under-23's race. Hawkins competed at the 2014 Commonwealth Games held in Glasgow, Scotland, representing the host nation in the men's 10,000 metres, finishing 20th. In October 2015 he finished the Great Scottish Run in a time of one hour two minutes and 42 seconds, setting a personal best to in second place overall behind Uganda's Moses Kipsiro and winning the gold medal for Scottish athletes. Later that month he competed in his first marathon in Frankfurt, finishing twelfth in two hours 12 minutes and 17 seconds, in a race won by Ethiopia's Sisay Lemma. At the 2016 London Marathon, his second event over the distance, Hawkins finished eighth overall, and was the first British-qualified athlete to finish, in a time of two hours 10 minutes and 52 seconds. This time was inside the qualifying time of two hours 14 minutes needed to earn him a place in the Great Britain team for the 2016 Summer Olympics to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He was joined in the men's marathon by fellow British athletes, Tsegai Tewelde and his brother Derek Hawkins. Hawkins finished ninth in the marathon at the 2016 Olympics in a time of 2:11:52. In October 2016 he again ran the Great Scottish Run and this time was the overall winner of the event in 1:00:24. This would have been a new Scottish half-marathon record, but the race was found to be 150 m too short, which invalidated the result. In January 2017 he became the first British athlete to beat Mo Farah in any race for 7 years at the Great Edinburgh International Cross Country race, which has been held annually since 2005. In fact Callum was 2nd in this race overall - Callum had put in a strong performance to lead for most of the race, but was out-sprinted by Leonard Korir in the final straight. In February 2017 Hawkins won the Kagawa Marugame Half Marathon in Japan, in 60:00, setting a new Scottish half-marathon record. The previous record was set by Allister Hutton in 1987. In August 2017 Hawkins finished 4th in the men's marathon at the 2017 World Championships, equalling the best ever performance by a British runner in this event. Hawkins competed at the 2018 Commonwealth Games held in Gold Coast, Australia, and collapsed near the finish while leading, from heat exhaustion in 30 degree heat. Hawkins came fourth in the men's marathon at the 2019 World Athletics Championships, the same placing as in 2017.
