Coventry Godiva Harriers is an athletics

Athletics (track and field)

Athletics is an exclusive collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking. The most common types of athletics competitions are track and field, road running, cross country running, and race walking...

 club based in Coventry

Coventry

Coventry is a city and metropolitan borough in the county of West Midlands in England. Coventry is the 9th largest city in England and the 11th largest in the United Kingdom. It is also the second largest city in the English Midlands, after Birmingham, with a population of 300,848, although...

, West Midlands

West Midlands (county)

The West Midlands is a metropolitan county in western central England with a 2009 estimated population of 2,638,700. It came into existence as a metropolitan county in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972, formed from parts of Staffordshire, Worcestershire and Warwickshire. The...

, England

England

England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

 and was established in 1879. The club name refers to the notable Lady Godiva

Lady Godiva

Godiva , often referred to as Lady Godiva , was an Anglo-Saxon noblewoman who, according to legend, rode naked through the streets of Coventry in order to gain a remission of the oppressive taxation imposed by her husband on his tenants...

 of Coventry and the sport of "hare and hounds" cross country running

Cross country running

Cross country running is a sport in which people run a race on open-air courses over natural terrain. The course, typically long, may include surfaces of grass and earth, pass through woodlands and open country, and include hills, flat ground and sometimes gravel road...

.

Current athletes

The club currently has numerous athletes competing internationally. Marlon Devonish is the most famous of them and has won an Olympic Gold medal in the 4 x 100 m relay. Other notable male athletes:

Name	Event(s)
Joel Fearon	100 m/200 m
Stewart Marshall	100 m/200 m/400 m
Andrew Boon	400m/400mH
Jamie Blundell	Long Jump/100 m
Martin Browne	100 m/200 m
Brian Darby	400 m
Andrew Downing (U17)	800 m
Stephen Emery	800 m/1500 m/ XC
Matthew Almond	1500 m/3000 m/5000 m/XC
Ben Jones	1500 m/3000 m/5000 m/5miles/10 km/Half-Marathon/XC
Matthew Lole	3000 m/5000 m/5miles/10 km/Half-Marathon/Marathon/XC
Ryan Kenny	3000 m/5000 m/5miles/10 km/XC
Tom Bark	3000 m SC/3000 m/5000 m/XC
Lenny Shail	5miles/XC
Scott Hazell	5000 m/5miles/10 km/Half-Marathon
Robert Barker-Davies	400 m Hurdles
Karl Robbins	High Jump
Mark Brown	High Jump
Joseph Okpoti	Shot
Glyn Hollingworth	Javelin/Discus
Grant Barker	Javelin

Athletes

The club has produced many athletes who have competed at an international level, including the Olympics

Olympic Games

The Olympic Games is a major international event featuring summer and winter sports, in which thousands of athletes participate in a variety of competitions. The Olympic Games have come to be regarded as the world’s foremost sports competition where more than 200 nations participate...

. The list below shows some of the most recognised athletes along with their event and performance whilst competing at the highest level.
1964 Olympics Marathon
Basil Heatley

Basil Heatley

Benjamin Basil Heatley was a British athlete, who mainly competed in the marathon. He was born in Kenilworth, Warwickshire....

 (silver medal)
and Brian Kilby

Brian Kilby

Brian Leonard Kilby is a retired marathon runner from Great Britain, whose best year was 1962. He then won the gold medal in the men's marathon at the European Championships and at the 1962 Commonwealth Games...

 4th

Bill Adcocks
1966	Commonwealth Games	Marathon	2:22:13
1968	Olympic Games	Marathon	2:25:33
1968	Fukuoka Marathon	Marathon	2:10:47
1970	Commonwealth Games	Marathon	2:15:10
David Moorcroft David Moorcroft David Robert Moorcroft is a former middle-distance and long-distance runner from England, and former world record holder for 5,000 metres. His athletic career spanned the late-1970s and 1980s. He subsequently served as the Chief Executive of UK Athletics from 1997 to 2007. He was awarded an MBE in...
1978	Commonwealth Games, Edmonton, Alberta	1,500 Metres	Gold
1982	Commonwealth Games, Brisbane, Queensland	5,000 Metres	Gold
1982	Bislett Games, Oslo, Norway	5,000 Metres	13:00.41 (New World Record)
Marlon Devonish Marlon Devonish Marlon Ronald Devonish, MBE is an English sprint athlete.He is a member of the Coventry Godiva Harriers athletics club and is coached by Tony Lester. Early in his career he was successful at both 100 and 200 metre distances, winning English Schools and European Junior titles at both, but in recent...
1998	Commonwealth Games, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	4x100 m relay	Gold
2002	Commonwealth Games, Manchester, England	4x100 m relay	Gold
2002	European Championships, Munich, Germany	4x100 m relay	Gold
2003	World Indoor Championships, Birmingham, England	200 m	Gold