Olympian Twell thrives on marathon debut in Valencia

The 29-year-old, a former European and Commonwealth Games bronze medallist, crossed the line in 2:30.12 to finish seventh in her first attempt at the distance at the Valencia Marathon.

Scotland's Twell ran a negative split, clocking 75:32 for the first half and 74:40 for the final 13.1 miles, having revealed her intention to attempt to qualify for Tokyo 2020 last month.

Her time means she now ranks fifth on the Scottish all-time list for the distance and Twell admitted afterwards that she felt stronger as the race wore on.

"It really is a race of two halves," she said on her Instagram page. "I'm delighted to now be able to call myself a marathoner and 26.2 didn't disappoint.

"Reflecting on 2:30.12, I can't complain with a 52sec negative split on my debut. Surprisingly, I preferred the second half after I woke up from my altitude legs and residual jetlag.

"I'm now looking forward to taking the positives from a small build up after a long break and then getting back at some shorter distances. Thanks for all the support."

The women's race was ultimately won by Ethiopian Ashete Dido in 2:21.14, with Lydia Cheromei of Kenya (2:22.10) and Tinbit Weldegebril (2:23.37) completing the podium.

Twell, a five-time British champion at 5000m, believes it is the right time in her career to step up to marathon distance - an ambition she said she has held for a long time.

She competed in both the 1500m and 5000m at the Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast earlier this year, finishing in 7th position and 14th respectively.

Prior to the race in Valencia, Twell said: "With two years to the Olympics, I'm aware it is no easy task to tackle the marathon but I have hopes to make my best impact at Tokyo 2020 and the marathon might be one of the ways I can reach this goal."

Sportsbeat 2018