The mother of St Albans athlete Lizzie Bird has spoken of her pride after her daughter make her British debut at the World Championships.
Virgina Bird was watching on as 24-year-old Lizzie, a former pupil at St Albans School, took part in the 3,000m steeplechase in Doha, Qatar.
And the former Herts Phoenix runner, who now turns out for Shaftesbury Barnet Harriers, clocked a personal best time of nine minutes 30.13 seconds to finish sixth in heat two, agonisingly missing out on a place in the final by 0.12 seconds and an Olympic qualifying time by an further one-hundredth.
Virginia said: "After 15 years of running it was an absolute delight to watch our daughter running in her first senior GB vest. She has been in the USA where she had fantastic coaching through the US collegiate system."
Lizzie is expected too focus on finding that small improvement and making the GB squad for next year's Olympics in Tokyo.
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