ben smith, pictured smiling with girlfriend jordan ibsen before the event, collapsed and died just minutes from finishing the wilmslow half marathon  smiling for the camera, 27 year old ben smith poses with his girlfriend at the start of the half marathon he would never complete it is the final picture of the sales executive, who collapsed and died less than two hours later near the end of the 131 mile course mr smith, who regularly played sport, fell to the ground just a mile from the finish line of the wilmslow half marathon in cheshire despite runners’ attempts to resuscitate him, former grammar school pupil mr smith was pronounced dead in hospital he had posed for pictures with girlfriend jordan ibsen, 25, just before the race last night his devastated parents said they still do not know what killed their son after a post mortem examination failed to find an explanation for his death his father gary smith, 57, said: ‘what happened to ben is still unexplained ‘he was fit and healthy, had no medical conditions there was a gp running behind him who said he had no pulse ‘he had played lacrosse his whole life and was always healthy we’ve had no answers – we’re still waiting for more tests to come back we just don’t understand why or how this happened ‘it was completely out of the blue we’re devastated and jordan is heartbroken’ gary, who lives with wife chris, 51, and ben’s brothers oliver, 25, and josh, 24, in sale, said his son had recently moved in with teacher miss ibsen in chorlton, manchester he said his son had just landed a promotion and that he and his girlfriend were ‘soul mates and best friends’ just setting up a life together mr smith, a former altrincham grammar school for boys pupil who later studied at loughborough university, is understood to have been training in the run up to the race on march 22 fitness fanatic ben smith had entered the wilmslow half marathon in cheshire (pictured) and was just a mile from the end when he collapsed  air ambulance air ambulance and paramedics rushed to the scene after the 'healthy and active' 27 year old became unresponsive  one runner who witnessed the tragedy said: ‘by the time i got to the 12 mile mark, fellow runners were already giving him chest compressions and desperately trying to bring him round ‘there weren’t any race marshals around so fellow runners were helping ‘they seemed to get him back and they turned him on his side everyone was very, very shocked it was an incredibly distressing sight but there was little anyone could do it is such a tragedy’ his mother chris said: ‘he was doing his dream job – he loved it he had been given a big promotion and a pay rise, he’d moved in with jordan ‘they were just getting on in life together they were a lovely couple and were starting to build a life it’s so unfair ‘it’s an absolute mystery what happened we’ve been inundated with cards and messages he was a hard worker all his life and he never said a bad word about anybody’ he was taken to the nearby wythenshawe hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival on sunday, march 22 
27 year old cheshire the wilmslow half marathon jordan ibsen just minutes last week ben smith
ben smith died last week during the wilmslow half marathon in cheshire  the 27 year old had been just minutes from the end when he collapsed  described as 'healthy' a post mortem failed to find anything abnormal  he was pictured smiling with girlfriend jordan ibsen before the event 