Jessica Andrews can't quite believe having just won the 10,000 British trials for the Rio Olympics, thus booking her place for the Olympics.
Dan Martin has spoken in the past about how he fancies his chances in the hilly road race course at the Rio Olympics, and now he has another very good reason to be motivated.
His fiancée, British athlete Jessica Andrews, has just qualified for the Olympics for Great Britain with a terrific 10,000 metres run.
She broke her personal best by a whopping 83 seconds – that’s 1 minute 23 seconds in old money – to book her place on the plane to Brazil.
Andrews, who is still only aged 23 years and is at the start of her distance running career, had only run 10,000 metres on one occasion on the track before last night’s performance in Highgate.
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The big loser on the night was British distance legend Jo Pavey; the former European 10,000 metres champion and already a double Olympian finishing 6th.
She must now chase faster times if she is to be granted a possible third place in the event for Great Britain in Rio.
But the night belonged to Andrews, whom the BBC described as an "unheralded" athlete; until now, of course.
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She stormed through the field that included former world champion from Kenya Linet Masai to win in a time of 31:58.
That was not only much faster than her personal best but also inside the Rio qualifying time by 17 seconds.
"Everyone dreams of the Olympics. But it's whether you're dreaming about the reality, or whether you think, ah, it's a dream, it's never going to happen," she told the BBC.
"I'm still a little bit shell-shocked. I've been training really hard, crazy hard, and I believed it was going to be my day.
"It's weird - I'd had vibes in training, thinking I was feeling really good, and I had nothing to lose."
Absolutely speechless! Thank you for all the messages! The race of my life..So far! Always believed in this dream ✨? pic.twitter.com/zYS74dV38h
— Jessica Andrews (@JessAndrews__) May 22, 2016
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