KENT'S Charlotte Dale defied her painful calf problems at the Spar European Cross Country Championships in Edinburgh to add an unexpected bronze individual medal to the gold she won last year.

The Invicta East Kent athlete also helped Great Britain and Northern Ireland retain the junior women’s team title in great style in the bright sunshine and biting wind of Holyrood Park.

Dale was pleased with her performance because she had not expected to finish the race, won by Latvia’s European junior 3,000m champion Inna Poluskina, let alone come third.

Dale, who lives in Whitstable and studies at St Mary’s College in Twickenham, said: “My calves hurt from the second lap, but it’s only three weeks since I pulled out of the trials.

"I knew it would be a hard race. I ran against Inna in the 5,000m at the European Juniors. In the second lap, I thought I would just stay in third and be happy with that.

“I can’t really be disappointed. It would have been nice to win again, but no-one can take the title away from me. I was honestly not going to run two weeks ago. In the last week I’ve done some training that made me more confident.

“I came for the team, really. I don’t know where the strong finish came from!”

Dale’s training mate at the UK Athletics Endurance Performance Centre in Twickenham, Faye Fullerton, who was born in Canterbury and now lives in Upminster, produced a brilliant run to finish fifth.