MELISSA Courtney-Bryant travelled more than halfway around the world in a frantic fortnight before completing the best summer of her career at the Diamond League final, reports Nigel Harding.
The Poole Athletic Club star deferred 30th birthday celebrations for a trip to China, but was rewarded with the second fastest 1500m of her career, 3:58.22, and precious qualifying points at the Xiamen Diamond League meeting.
Six days later, Courtney-Bryant was just eight hundredths of a second off her personal best with 3:58.09 in Brussels. Her seventh place was sufficient to secure a Diamond League final spot. Just two days on she finished a close third in the New Balance Fifth Avenue Mile in New York, clocking 4:20.6.
World record holder Faith Kipyegon dominated the Diamond League Final in Eugene, Oregon with a 3:50.72 effort that left even third placed Laura Muir (3:55.16) out of the television pictures. Courtney-Bryant, however, matched her seeding with ninth place and 3:59.57, her third sub-four-minute performance in 15 days.
All this came off the back of the Welsh international’s gruelling World Athletics Championships campaign in Budapest, when she ran 4:03.14 (heat), 4:02.79 (semi-final) and 4:03.31 (final) within the space of four days.
Younger Poole AC athletes have also distinguished themselves in major championships. William Rabjohns took another second off his personal best, running 3:46.46 to finish fifth in the Commonwealth Youth Games 1500m in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad. Though an under-18, this briefly saw him ranked at number 100 of all British men this season.
Edward Bird ran 8:51.09 in Jerusalem in the European Under-20 Championships 3,000m final. Bird led for half the race to give himself a medal chance before fading to seventh. He had run 8:32.91 in his heat.
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