In May of this year Alison Leonard ran two 800m races at Watford ten days apart in which she recorded successive times of 2.02.85 and 2.02.79. She followed that up by winning the British One Mile Road Championship in London in a time of 4.33 and then on the back of that ran a 2.01.81 in Belgium at the end of May. Going into the British Championships & Trials for the Europeans Alison was clearly in very good form and proved it in a very big way. She won her heat in 2.01.94 and then finished second in the final to Lynsey Sharp in a time of 2.01.83.

On Saturday July 12th she had an opportunity to set the qualifying time of 2.00.50 for the Europeans in the Diamond League and she took the opportunity with both hands, cutting a massive 1.73 seconds off her PB to record a new best of 2.00.08 and book her place on the plane to Zurich.

Full Meeting Results HERE

Women’s 800m Results HERE

Alison was absolutely delighted, as was everyone at Blackburn Harriers who have seen her battle through injusy over the last few years but never gave in and told us “I am absolutely over the moon and can’t quite believe it! I hadn’t planned my season around going to Zurich so I’m a bit taken aback! I’m proud to have had the chance to wear my Blackburn vest in the diamond league too!”

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