By Chris McNulty
FINN Valley’s Sarah Collins set an impressive new personal best in a 5k in California on Friday night.
Collins was in action in the high-profile Stanford Invitational. Collins came home in a time of 15:31.03, a significant new marker for the 20-year old, with her previous best having been set in Walnut, California last year at 16:19.80.
Collins is based at Providence College, Rhode Island, and opted to give the indoor season a miss to target Stanford – and she got the outdoor programme underway in a blistering time.
Collins’s time was only five seconds off Sonia O’Sullivan’s 15:26.9 mark from Cork in 1990.
Collins, who finished seventh in the women’s 5,000m at the European Juniors in Rieti, Italy last summer, has previously been described by Patsy McGonagle, Finn Valley AC Chairman and Irish Athletics Team Manager, as ‘the best young prospect I’ve seen in forty years’. Collins was recruited by McGonagle after being put in touch by Sinead Jennings.
Collins last year set a new Irish junior indoor 5k record, 15:41, at the Reggie Lewis Centre in Roxbury.
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