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Dale shines among the 'big girls'

CHARLOTTE DALE: Received plenty of encouragement from the crowd. Picture: DAVE STEWART
CHARLOTTE DALE: Received plenty of encouragement from the crowd. Picture: DAVE STEWART

WHITSTABLE'S European Junior Cross Country champion Charlotte Dale made a scintillating debut among the Senior Women on the IAAF Permit circuit at Tourcoing in northern France.

The 18-year-old Invicta East Kent athlete, a student at the UK Athletics Endurance High Performance Centre at St Mary’s College, Twickenham, finished a superb fourth - and was the first European over the line - on the kind of flat, lawn-like course she hates most.

In a frantic sprint finish to the 5.5km race, Dale was beaten by three Ethiopians, coming in only five seconds behind winner Etalemahu Kidane, who was timed at 19 minutes 11 seconds.

While Dale felt her run was “all right,” it was described as “phenomenal” by Zara Hyde Peters, UK Athletics Technical Director for Endurance. Dale added: “I got a lot of encouragement from the crowd, because I was the leading European among all the Africans."

Dale will run in the Junior Women’s race at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Lausanne in March. Her next outing will be in the Under-20 race at the Reebok Inter-Counties Cross Country Championships in Nottingham on February 8.

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