Salisbury’s international athlete Verity Ockenden took a good fourth place in the women’s 5,000m final at the British championships in the relentless hot sunshine of the Alexander stadium, Birmingham over the bank holiday weekend.
From the gun, the race was dominated by Eilish McColgan of Dundee who quickly built a big lead and eventually took the title in 15min 20sec.
Behind her in a spirited finish were fellow top names in the GB team, Jess Judd from Blackburn and Morpeth Harriers’ Laura Weightman.
Verity’s time of 15.41 was within a second of her best ever, a most creditable run when even in the shade the temperature was 30C throughout.
Next weekend (Sept 1st) sees the launch of the new road running season with an undulating 5mile Hampshire League race at Overton where over a hundred CoSarc wearers of the famed blue vest will face the starter.
by John Ruskin