Steph Twell shocked even herself in producing one of the best runs of her senior career to snatch European 10,000m Cup glory.
The 29-year-old overhauled European Champion Lonah Chemtai Salpeter with a lap to go claim a popular win in from of a noisy Parliament Hill crowd in London on Saturday night.
The two-time Olympian broke the line in a time of 31 minutes and 8.13 seconds, the sixth fastest-ever time by a Briton.
She said: “I can’t believe how easy I felt and I’m delighted. The crowd were amazing. I’ve never heard a roar like that and it really lifted me.
“I still really can’t quite believe it. The atmosphere was electric.
“A few months ago, in my head, I would probably have let her go. On the back straight, I just thought I could still see her heels, ‘I’m not letting her go’.
“I didn’t even think about her as European champion. She was just another girl in the race and that was important to me to think she wasn’t out of reach.”
Twell’s victory capped a fantastic Night of 10,000 PBs for Great Britain who also brought home the Euroepan Team Cup competition.
Eilish McColgan came home third in the women’s race, also with a world standard time of 31:16.76.
While in the men’s race Ben Connor won his first European Cup medal, sealing bronze and clocking sub-28 minutes for the first time.
Although his time of 27:57.60 was outside the Doha qualifying standard for the World Champions later this year, the prospect of gunning for the time is still a possibility for the Derby athlete.
Connor said afterwards: “I’m delighted – British champ, third overall, sub 28, it couldn’t have gone much better, to be honest.
“I felt really good up to 5000m, went through in 14:05ish. I was wary that I’ve blown up before – it’s so easy to mess up a 10,000m track race.
“I’ve made mistakes before and didn’t want to make them again.”
Sportsbeat 2019