OLYMPICS: Pavey happy to be top European (From Mid Devon Star)
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OLYMPICS: Pavey happy to be top European
10:50am Sunday 12th August 2012 in Sport
OLYMPICS: Pavey happy to be top European
TIVERTON'S Jo Pavey admitted she was just glad her 38-year-old legs had not let her down as she underlined her status as Europe’s top distance runner at London 2012 on Friday.
Pavey had already served notice of the extent of her career Indian summer with a new 10,000m personal best on her way to seventh – and the first European – a week ago.
And there was welcome symmetry to her performance over the shorter distance – a new lifetime best, seventh place and the best continental performer once more.
Having struggled with the demands of completing both the 10,000 and 5,000m in an action-packed week, Pavey said: “I am so pleased my legs held out because I couldn’t do my warm up properly.
“And to be honest I was fortunate that I felt better for the final. I just wanted to stay out of trouble because I didn’t run the qualifying race tactically very well and all the moving around didn’t help my legs I don’t think.
“But I'm pleased with two top eights. I have got to be pleased because the Ethiopian and the Kenyan girls are just awesome and I had done the 10,000m.
“To come away with two top-eight finishes and to get another chance to compete in front of the home crowd was awesome.
“To be honest I was just so pleased my legs held up because after the 5,000m heat I couldn’t even warm down and it took me ages to get to the warm down track.
“I just didn’t know what it was going to be like for the final and so I put two compression socks on my right leg.”
Pavey, who has competed at four Olympics, said she will now revert back to the marathon - the event in which she had originally hoped to qualify for the Games.
She said: “I am going to run a marathon in the autumn because I want to try and run a personal best in that and get some more experience."
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