Innes Fitzgerald: World Championships aim after breaking Zola Budd’s record

With the Olympic Games in Los Angeles still three years away there is still plenty of time for Fitzgerald to improve.

Under the guidance of former Great Britain runner Jo Pavey and her husband Gavin, Fitzgerald has gradually moved up the ranks over the past few years.

She is currently the second-fastest British woman over 5,000m this year behind reigning UK champion Hannah Nuttall and her latest personal best has pushed her to 33rd in the world.

“I think the sky’s the limit in terms of what we’re doing,” the sports science student at Exeter University says.

“It’s nice to see the improvements – on Saturday at the Diamond League it was great to get the time.

“We kind of went into the season with not too much expectation. We knew I could run well and getting that world qualifying time was the main aim.

“If I came away from the race having put everything in and still not coming out with the time, that wasn’t necessarily a bad run, it would have still probably been a PB.

“It’s a privilege to be put up there with some of those best in the world, and especially Zola Budd who ran extremely well 40 years ago, it just shows how things take time to move on and it’s nice to kind of put my name against hers.”