Thousands of Runners Take Part in the Altra Brighton Half Marathon
Thousands of Runners Take Part in the Altra Brighton Half Marathon in Beautiful Conditions
CONGRATULATIONS to everyone that took part in the 2025 Altra Brighton Half Marathon!
Sunday 2 March, Brighton – Thousands of runners turned out for the 35th Altra Brighton Half Marathon this morning, in beautiful conditions, running 13.1 miles around the city. The event kicked off at 9.27am with the Yeomans Toyota Wheelchair Race, followed by the main race at 9:30am, all started by comedian and actor Joe Wilkinson.
In the wheelchair race, Josh Hickinbottom took first place with a super-fast time of 57 minutes and 24 seconds. In the men’s race, Seyfu Jamaal smashed the course record with an incredible time of 1 hour, 4 minutes and 30 seconds; second place went to Ed Shepherd, who came home in at 1 hour 7 minutes and 53 seconds; third place went to Hugh Sadler who finished in 1 hour, 8 minutes and 15 seconds.
The women’s race was won by Christa Cain, finishing in 1 hour, 16 minutes and 19 seconds, followed by Rachel Laurie in exactly 1 hour 18 minutes. Third place went to Ruby Whyte-Wilding with a time of 1 hour, 18 minutes and 21 seconds.
Alongside the elite field, thousands of charity runners took to the streets of the city, including Stuart Taylor, 45 from Lancing, who ran the race wearing a karaoke speaker backpack and singing the whole way round to raise money for WaterAid; Soph Cheesman, 31 and Hannah Brown, 32 from Brighton who broke the Guinness World Record running the race three-legged in a staggering time of 1 hour and 48 minutes; and finally Carmen Somerset, 40 and Daniel Creed, 44 from Hove who ran the race the morning after their wedding party!
The Altra Brighton Half Marathon 2025 started from a new location on Hove Lawns before sweeping east along Brighton seafront past key city landmarks such as the i360 and the Brighton Palace Pier before heading north past the Royal Pavilion and then on to the bracing cliff tops of East Brighton. Runners then headed back to Madeira Drive and then on to Hove Lagoon and the colourful beach huts of Hove seafront, before finally heading to the finish line on Hove Lawns.
Brighton-based HIV charity, The Sussex Beacon is the owner of the race. The event is the charity’s biggest fundraiser every year and is essential to help fund the charity’s services. The race typically raises over £1 million for charities across Sussex and the UK every year, including Macmillan Cancer Support, Alzheimer’s Society, Taylor-Made Dreams, Grassroots Suicide Prevention, Say Aphasia, Venkat Memorial Trust, Alcohol Change UK, WWF-UK and local charities Rockinghorse, Amaze and Raystede.
Rachel Brett, CEO, The Sussex Beacon said:
“What a wonderful day, such an incredible atmosphere! Thank you to all the runners, our sponsors, the charities, the supporters, and the fantastic volunteers who make the event possible! We hope to see you all next year!”
Martin Harrigan, Race Director, Altra Brighton Half Marathon said:
“Such a fantastic day! We could not have asked for better weather and the support around the course has been amazing! It is incredible to have had the course record smashed by Seyfu Jamaal in the men’s race but all of the runners have been incredible! Thank you also to all the sponsors, supporters and finally, our amazing volunteers who gave up their Sunday morning to support us, we really couldn’t do it without you!”
