Teddington-based Andy Vernon has set his sights on a place in the Team GB squad for the World Indoor Championships in Sopot after clocking a season’s best for the 3,000m on Saturday.
The 27-year-old St Mary’s University graduate came close to causing an upset at the Glasgow International Match in Scotland as he clocked seven minutes 50.10 seconds in finishing second to USA legend Bernard Lagat by only 0.27 seconds.
And, having set a world indoor qualifying time, Vernon is out to complete the job of selection in the next month or so.
“I’m hoping to go the World Indoors. I’ve got the qualifying time now, so that is stage one done,” he said after the race.
“It is the trials in two weeks’ time so hopefully I’ll be good enough to finish in the top two there. Then it is Birmingham before hopefully I’ll head to Poland.”
Fellow Teddington athlete Andrew Osagie clocked 1:16.86 to finish third in the 600m, despite leading for two thirds of the race.
And Teddington para-athlete Michael Poulton finished last in the T44 60m sprint, but set a new personal best of 8.39 secs on his international debut.
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