Wakefield Harriers runner Amy-Eloise Markovc makes encouraging 10,000m debut

Markovc finished fifth in a high quality international field at the World Continental Tour Meeting at Irvine, in the USA

The Harriers runner beat fellow Great Britain internationals Jessica Judd and Steph Twell in the race to boost her chances of earning selection for the Tokyo Olympics.

Her time of 31 minutes, 25.91 seconds was a new club 10,000m record, beating Aine Hoban’s previous record of 32 minutes, 45.94 seconds, which was also set in the USA back in 2007.

However, Amy-Eloise’s time was tantalisingly just less than a second short of the Olympic qualifying time.

Markovc has now turned her attention to the outdoors season after a superb indoors campaign that saw her crowned European women’s champion at 3,000 metres in Torun, Poland in March.

She also broke the British record over two miles in New York to earn a double slice of Wakefield Harriers history as the first to break a GB record and a first European champion in the club’s 126 years of existence.

The next ambition is to become the sixth Wakefield Harrier to make it to the Olympics, after steeplechaser Steve Hollings in 1972, 400m sprinter Alan Bell in 1980, 400m relay runners Alan Slack four years later and Emily Freeman in 2008, and high jumper Martyn Bernard in Beijing and London.

Amy-Eloise’s primary aim is to qualify for the GB team at 5,000m with trials for that distance set to take place at the British Championships in Manchester at the end of June. But she is also likely to compete in the 10,000m trials at the start of June as she keeps her options open.