Lesley Hall with her bronze medal
ASHFORD AC’s Lesley Hall secured a superb medal on her debut in the European Veterans championships in Nyiregyhaza in Hungary.
A delighted Lesley claimed the bronze in the 10,000m for the over 50s age group and went on to take seventh in the 5,000m despite being one of the oldest runners in her age class.
She was part of the 274-strong Great Britain squad for the championships which attracted over 3,000 athletes from 41 countries.
It was her first time in a competition of this standard and comes after being selected as a reserve for the England cross country team in the winter.
“It made me think it would be interesting to have a try but I was unsure how it would go as I have only done the 10,000m once before on the track. But it was a great experience and I was thrilled when they told me I had taken the bronze.”
“”They ran our race with the overs 40s age group so I didn’t know where I had finished at the end and it was a surprise when they told me I had got a podium place.”
She ran the race in 41 minutes 54 seconds which was a fine time considering the intense heat. Even though the race was run at 5pm it was still over 36C in the stadium so it was a real test of fitness and endurance.”
Four days later she ran the 5,000m as well take a fine seventh in 20:48 and was very pleased with her finish holding off several other runners ranked higher than her on times.
Lesley, a stalwart at the Ashford club, enjoyed the experience so much she now hopes to bid for a slot on the English team for the cross country this winter and aims for the European Masters event next year on the borders of Luxembourg, Germany and France where the squad run a road 10k, compete in a team cross country event and finish with a half marathon.
