Melissa Courtney Battles To 1500m Bronze For Wales

Melissa Courtney admitted she was gobsmacked after striking Commonwealth Games 1500m bronze for Wales.

The Poole-born runner finished strongly in the home straight to set a new personal best of four minutes 03.44seconds.

Courtney came home behind South Africa’s Caster Semanya who claimed the first gold in her 800/1500m double bid.

The 24-year-old said: “I was absolutely gobsmacked.

“It was all a bit of a blur at the end, but I had planned to just run a normal race and finish. 

“I knew there was a medal at the end. I just wanted to be in the top six.”

“I was just running the race at the back, gradually moving forward. I was chasing down an Aussie and could hear the crowd cheering.”

Courtney, normally based in Loughborough, added: 

“I’m in complete shock, I can’t believe I ran that fast.

“I felt strong in the last 100m, the crowd were going crazy, and I’d tried to pretend the crowd were cheering for me as I came past the Aussie. 

“I’ve got so many family and fans out here, it’s my first big final, and it went so well.”

Courtney, who is also running the 5000m, has been training in Kenya and France to get ready for her Games challenge having taken up running to help her competitive swimming.

And it paid off as she overhauled local favourite Linden Hall to snatch the gold.

Semenya produced her customary kick with 250m to go to win in a Games record of 4:00.71 with Beatrice Chepkoech second in 4:03.44.

Wales’ Kirsty Wade was the last runner to achieve the Games 1500m-800m in 1986.