Innes FitzGerald’s team-mates at Exeter University will have missed her presence at last weekend’s British Universities Cross Country Championships in Cardiff. But the 18-year-old’s decision to race indoors in Ostrava instead paid off as she demolished her own PB and set a European under-20 women’s record of 8:40.05.
Racing at the Czech Indoor Gala on Tuesday (Feb 4), FitzGerald took down Sofia Thøgersen’s mark of 8:50.26 and also sliced 16 seconds off Zola Budd’s British indoor under-20 record of 8:56.13 set by the barefoot runner when winning an international match at Cosford 40 years ago.
FitzGerald first made her mark in the summer of 2022 when, as a relative novice, she smashed the UK under-17 women’s 3000m record with 8:59.67 to win the SIAB Schools International.
She struggled to improve that mark for a while, but showed her ability on the country when winning two European under-20 titles and a number of national crowns on the mud. What’s more, last summer she finished a fine fourth in the 3000m at the World Under-20 Championships in Lima behind three east Africans.
Innes FitzGerald (Getty)
Under the guidance of coach Gavin Pavey, she improved her 3000m best to 8:48.30 when winning a mixed sex race by 22 seconds in Cardiff last month and has now taken a further eight seconds off that time this week.
It caps a great few days for British athletes over 3000m with Melissa Courtney-Bryant winning in style at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston in 8:28.69 and George Mills breaking Josh Kerr’s UK record with 7:27.92 in France.
Finally, people are now talking more about FitzGerald’s performances rather than her much-publicised reluctance to travel by air due to environmental reasons.
The Ostrava race was won by Ethiopia’s Freweyni Hailu in 8:24.17 as FitzGerald battled behind into fourth place, clocking kilometre splits of 2:55.8, 2:54.2 and 2:50.0.
As a measure of FitzGerald’s ability, Budd’s 8:56.13 performance in 1985 was a UK and Commonwealth indoor record at the time. Budd, who was 18 at the time, won the world cross-country senior women’s title in Lisbon a few weeks later – 23 seconds ahead of Ingrid Kristiansen, who in turn went on to win the London Marathon the following month in 2:21:06.
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