IT was great to see Ellie Leather make the final of the women’s 1500m at the UK Athletics Championships in Manchester.
As we have reported regularly on the blog Leather, who is a member of Westbury Harriers and Yate & District AC, has enjoyed a superb summer season in America where she is a student at Cincinnati University.
Personal bests of 4:11.33 for the 1500m and 4:34.89 over a mile told us she was in great shape but could Leather transfer that form back to the UK after an already long, hard year of track racing?
The answer to that was an emphatic yes as she first won her heat of the 1500m (4:23.78) and then placed a very creditable eighth (4:23.76) in a high quality final.
That performance, allied with her PB that puts her 15th in the UK Rankings, will give Leather a lot of attention and hopefully open a few more doors in terms of getting invites to other big races in the future.
Ellie Leather is certainly one of the big success stories of the West Country athletics scene this year.