Represents Great Britain
Joined Atlanta Track Club Elite: 2022
Top Accomplishments
• 2017 European Under-23 Bronze Medalist, 800m
• 2018, 2019 British Outdoor Championships finalist, 800m
• 4-time NAIA Champion, 800m (2016 and 2017, indoors and outdoors)
• 8-time NAIA All-American
• 2017 NAIA National Athlete of the Year for women’s indoor track.
Atlanta Track Club Staff Role
Coordinator – Customer Success
Road to Atlanta Track Club Elite
Hannah grew up in Middlesbrough, a town in North Yorkshire about 250 miles north of London. When she was 11, her grandfather watched her play soccer and told her she’d be a good runner. He took her down to a local track and soon she was sprinting for the club to which they both still belong, Middlesbrough Athletics Club. After high school, she reached out to colleges in the U.S. and heard from the coach at Milligan (in Johnson City, Tennessee), who said he thought she’d be better at middle distance. After she ran her first 800 meters (“It wasn’t fast, it wasn’t pretty, but at least I could do two laps”), the coach suggested she should also do cross country – meaning that instead of the 400 meters she was used to, she’d be running 5000m. But she said yes, and at the age of 18 packed two suitcases and flew London-Philadelphia-Charlotte-Tri Cities before the 20-mile car ride to her new home. “I remember thinking, ‘Everything is so much bigger here.’ It was so mountainous and beautiful, so wide-open. The weather was really nice; I came from where a nice summer day was 65 degrees in August.”
Grandfather Clause
Hannah’s grandfather, Ken Wilson, didn’t take up running until well into adulthood – but once he did, he got a lot of other people moving, too. Hannah remembers that he would bring her, an aunt and her aunt’s friend all out to run on the North York Moors. Her brother’s childhood best friend, Charlie Myers, got in on the running-club action, too, and went on to become the 2023 British Champion indoors and outdoors in the pole vault.
Breakthrough Summer
Right after winning the last of her four NAIA national titles and graduating from Milligan in 2017, Hannah ran a huge personal best (2:02.79) in the pro section of the Music City Distance Carnival (“a big stepping-stone”), then headed back to England to qualify for the European U23 Championships, where she won bronze. Returning to Tennessee to continue training with her college coach, she gained Abbey (D’Agostino) Cooper as an occasional training partner in the fall of 2018. “It was really good for me to be around someone like her, so positive,” Hannah said.
Fast Service
In 2019, Hannah needed a job and began working in a restaurant, first as a host and then a server, 30 to 40 hours a week. She enjoyed it, but by 2022 realized that she couldn’t keep working that many hours on her feet and continue to train effectively. So, her coach reached out to Atlanta Track Club Elite to see if they would be interested in having her as a team member.
Why Atlanta Track Club?
Although serving at a restaurant had become a bit too tiring, Hannah said she “couldn’t imagine sitting around doing nothing all day” when she isn’t training and was drawn by the opportunity to continue interacting with the public as part of the Club’s community involvement. One of her tasks as Coordinator – Customer Success is to help at the front desk of the Club’s headquarters, answering the phone and replying to emails. As the Atlanta Journal-Constitution Peachtree Road Race approaches each July 4, “that phone doesn’t stop ringing,” she said – adding that because the British national championships are always held around the same time, she probably won’t see the actual race until she retires.
How She Knows She’s Ready to Race
“When I’m having training sessions where everything is on point, my easy runs are going well and my coach is saying I’m ready to go.”
Want to Know More?
• Hannah’s grandfather ran until the last few years. Now 84, he still walks 10 miles at a stretch.
• Atlanta is the first big city in which Hannah has lived. She said she enjoys its multicultural aspects and that even though she’s less enamored of the traffic, she still prefers driving in the U.S. – even Atlanta – because the cars are bigger and they’re automatic rather than standard shift.
• Hannah received a special proclamation by the Tennessee State Senate for her athletic accomplishments in April 2017. In 2018, she was inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame.