ROUND-UP: World-class performance from Spalding girl in the USA, personal-best displays from city runners in Watford

Having shattered her 10,000m personal best in March with a 32:11.80 clocking, the 23-year-old from Spalding took on some of the world’s finest over 5,000m.

Taylor didn’t disappoint finishing 13th in a time of 15:29.07, an improvement of 36 seconds on her previous best mark. Nicole Tully the USA national 5,000m champion in 2015 was one of the athletes left trailing in the wake of the speedy harrier.

Things went exactly to plan for Taylor who reflected: “It was a really strong field, so, going into the race, I was excited about the opportunity to race some top quality athletes and was expecting a fast pace. I knew that if I hung onto the pack for as long as possible there was a good chance I would come out with a PB And it worked!”

Taylor is looking forward to her next outing adding: “I have some exciting racing opportunities coming up over the next month or so, as the NCAA championship season begins in under three weeks time. I’ll race the 5 and 10k at the West regional round, with the aim of making the national final in both events.”

Three Nene Valley athletes ran PBs at the Watford Open Meeting.

James McCrae clocked 3:54.24 in the 1,500m finishing fifth, three places ahead of Lloyd Kempson who clocked 3:55.61.

Ashley Sandall smashed his previous 800m best with a time of 1:51.97.

Aaron Scott and Philippa Taylor suffered rare defeats in the North Lincolnshire Half Marathon (May 14).

Both athletes finished second on a testing course with Scott clocking 1:11.05 and Taylor 1:24.45.