Herne Hill Harrier’s 3:56.72 was one of the highlights of some swift metric mile semi-finals in Budapest
After out-sprinting Laura Muir to the British title in Manchester and setting an 800m PB of 1:58.00 at the London Diamond League, Katie Snowden’s brilliant season continued in Budapest this week when she clocked 3:56.72 in a lightning quick women’s 1500m semi-final.
The time places her No.2 on the UK all-time rankings behind Laura Muir’s 3:54.50 and is an English record as she beat Kelly Holmes’ mark of 3:57.90, which was set when Holmes won Olympic gold in 2004.
Such was the quality of Snowden’s time, it would have been good enough to win every world title from 1983 to 2017. Yet she only finished fifth in the semi behind Faith Kipyegon’s 3:55.14 as Diribe Welteji of Ethiopia was second, Sifan Hassan third and Laura Muir fourth – the latter clocking 3:56.36. Amazingly all 11 finishers were inside 4:01 with Adelle Tracey setting a Jamaican record of 3:58.77 but failing to make Tuesday evening’s final.
Tracey, in fact, was one of three runners who broke four minutes for the first time but will not run in the final. The other semi-final, meanwhile, was won by Nelly Chepchirchir of Kenya in a more modest 4:02.14 as Melissa Courtney-Bryant finished fifth in 4:02.79 with a sub-60sec final lap to ensure Britain has three athletes in the final.
Katie Snowden with Laura Muir (Getty)
Snowden did not realise her time had put her No.2 on the UK all-time rankings when AW approached her after the race. But she said: “I’m so happy. It’s been a long time coming. I think people who have seen me training in St Moritz in the last couple of weeks have been saying that I can make the final here. It feels so nice when all the training is reflected in the result.”
Her best time before Budapest was 4:00.04 but the University of Nottingham geography graduate has been full-time since the Tokyo Olympics and her hard work largely at altitude with an Under Armour team in Flagstaff, Arizona, is paying off.
On her semi-final, she added: “I was expecting it to be sub-four-minute pace and my semi looked the more stacked of the two. I was prepared for it, though, as it was no surprise. I thought the line-up was very tough on paper but I thought ‘I can still do this’. I felt like I am a 3:56-57 runner and it was all about having the confidence to do it.”
“I’m just so happy to be honest and it’s been a long time coming.”
Last night
CLICK HERE to Read the Full Original Article at AW…