Fourteen-year-old Dana Simpson struggled to control her emotions as she crossed the line in first place for her age group, smashing the previous course record by 20 seconds
Interviewed immediately after the race, Dana described how she thought she was going to get a bronze medal, but described how the crowd spurred her on.
She said: “I heard everyone shouting and I remembered all the training I’ve done all year and how much I wanted it, and I just pushed really hard.
“I just let my legs burn and I thought ‘it’s only for minutes, the pain will be over. You’ll regret it if you don’t do it now’.
“So I just did it and I just pushed as hard as I possibly could
Dana added how she was inspired by her friend, who won a gold medal last year, adding: “It means the world, and I know my younger self would be so proud of me.”
Chester-le-Street club captain, Arran Lewcock, 35, shared Dana’s pride in her achievement.
He said: “It was excellent. It was pretty unexpected after her training as she had come second in her semi-final.
“We just asked her to give it her all and put everything in that she had. We were confident that she had it in her, she just had to let it out.”
He added: “From a young age, Dana has been on quite a long journey where we’ve asked quite a lot of her.
“Last year, she was too young to compete at British Championships, so we took her down there racing some kids a year older than her to get her the experience of what it’s all about.
“She did that for 12 months racing kids older than her but always winning. In the last three months, when she’s raced her own age, she’s not lost a race. She’s done seven or eight regattas now and not lost one.
Overall, Chester-le-Street Amateur Running Club had their “best year ever” at the British Championships, as the club took home numerous other medals, including a silver and five other bronzes.
One of the bronze medals was awarded to Dana’s brother, Eden.
Arran said the family are “so deserving” after all they do for the club.
The club finished 24th overall out of the 550 adult and junior clubs in the country. In the junior section, they finished 20th, a huge achievement for such a small club.
The club was also acknowledged as the highest achieving northern club in both categories.
