Spalding native Taylor clocks incredible 10,000m time at California meeting

Nene Valley Harrier Charlotte Taylor continued to enhance her reputation on the world stage with a stunning run over 10,000m at the Stanford Invitational meeting in California.

The San Francisco University student obliterated her previous personal best (PB), running 32.11.80mins and finishing fourth in a high-class field containing many internationals and Olympians.

Not only did Taylor run a world class time, but she finished four seconds inside the qualifying mark for the World Athletics Championships which will be held in London in August and finished hot on the heels of Rio Olympics 5,000m finalist Eilish McColgan.

Spalding native Taylor, who is now 23, said: “I’m delighted with how the race went and the time I ran.

“I’ve been training well and was targeting a sub-33 minute run going into the race, but I didn’t expect to break that barrier by so much.

“I was in the chasing pack through the first half of the race, but I felt comfortable and so was able to start closing down the gap to some of the girls falling off the back of the lead pack during the latter stages of the race.

“That really helped me to stay engaged and maintain my pace during the second half.”

This was Taylor’s first track 10,000m of what looks likely to be a memorable season.

Having won a gold medal in the world under-20 triathlon a few years ago, she was always destined for a big future in the sport.

Talking about her world championship prospects and the season ahead, she added: “It’s great to run inside the world championship qualifying standard.

“Although I will not be back in the UK in time for the 10,000m trials, as they are being held earlier than the British Championships.

“I’ll be racing a 5,000m in a few weeks’ time at the Payton Jordan invitational and then I’ll focus on the 10,000m again for the rounds of the NCAA nationals.”

After her incredible run, Taylor is ranked 20th on the all time list of British 10,000m runners, and there are currently no men at Nene Valley who have run faster than her.

• Alex Hampson ran a PB in his first 800m race of the season.

The 20-year-old Nene Valley Harrier finished as runner up in the Charnwood AC Open meeting at Loughborough with a time of 1.57.23mins. Club mate Austin Herbert was fifth, clocking 2.06.05mins.

• Chris Wright followed up this seventh-placed finish in the North London Half Marathon by winning the Croydon Half Marathon.

Wright’s time of 72.19mins gave him a massive four-minute victory margin.