Cambridge and Coleridge Athletic Club member Callum Elson wins silver medal for Great Britain at the World Athletics Road Running Championships in Latvia

Cambridge and Coleridge Athletic Club’s Callum Elson was in medal-winning form for Great Britain at the inaugural World Athletics Road Running Championships on Sunday.

The 24-year-old, who lives in the city centre, qualified for the one-mile contest in Riga, Latvia, by taking first place in the British Road Running Championships, which were held just a few weeks ago in Newcastle.

Elson was by no means considered to be among the contenders for prizes pre-race, but his European record time of 3:56.41 saw him split the American duo of Hobbs Kessler and Sam Prakel to get his hands on a silver medal.

Around 20 athletes remained in contention for the top three with just 200m left to race, but it was Elson’s tactical move out wide that opened up a clear line for him to attack the line.

He said: “It’s unreal – I just got stuck in. I ran with a bit of personality and authority. Someone has got to win, and I thought I had a good chance of winning it. If you ran that race 10 times over, you’d get a different winner each time.

“But when we were coming into the final 100m and we were three abreast, I just thought if you don’t give it a go and try to win, you are going to go to bed tonight and regret it. So, I thought, ‘strike now and give it everything’. I just about held on for a medal. I was fading badly, so another 50m, I would have been in a world of trouble.

“I got out hard on the first 400m. I took the first corner and was probably in the top five but between 400m and 1200m I’d gone back and back, but weirdly enough, the road just opened up and I got back with the group.

“I caught a second wind. In your mind as a runner, you can just tell if you have got one more gear. I could see the finish line so just decided to go for it, because I knew otherwise, I would regret it.”