3:16pm Saturday 31st July 2010
By Richard Daniels
BOWNESS-on-Windermere athlete Rebecca Robinson shared in a Great Britain 'team bronze' performance at the European Athletics Championship in Barcelona on Saturday.
Robinson, a hospital doctor who runs for Kendal Athletic Club, finished 24th and fifth Briton home in an exhausting women's marathon which finished around middway in the July heat of the Spanish city.
The former fell-runner turned road runner was having only her second international-class marathon after qualifying at London this year and clocked a time of 2hrs 44min 6seconds.
She and the rest of the British women had to wait to see if their three leading counters had done enough to take the third team behind Italy and Russia, the gold and silver team medal winners respectively.
Up at the front, Lithuanian Zivile Balciunaite stayed clear in the closing stages for a first-ever women's gold for her country in 2-31-14.
And it was the Lithuanian team which looked the sole threat to a British team bronze.
But when the third Lithuanian counter could only manage to finish 34th, the GB women had done enough on aggregate time to take the medal, according to BBC commentator and marathon heroine Paula Radcliffe, although the TV coverage frustratingly cut away without seeing all the British entrants, including Robinson finish.
The times of the two teams put the GB women four minutes plus better than the Lithuanians.
However, the marathon team medal will not be added to the medal table.
Leading in the GB counters who packed superbly well was Michelle Ross-Cope in 14th in 2-38-45.
Susan Patridge was just two places behind in 16th in 2-39-07, while Holly Rush in 20th was the third team counter in 2-42-44, just shading team-mate Helen Decker in 21st in 2-43-00.
Robinson was a minute away in 24th in 2-44-06, having been third Brit at the halfway point and shown going well by the BBC coverage.
She was five seconds ahead of fifth-placed Brit Jo Wilkinson in 2-44-11.
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