Local Sport

Pavey prepares for championships

Devon's Jo Pavey qualified for this year's Athletics World Championships by recording a lifetime best of 31 minutes and 27 seconds for the 10,000 metres in Watford at the weekend.

Pavey attended the meet looking to continue her acclimatisation training for the World Championship which will be held in Japan from August to September this year, and the race may well have provided the perfect preparation. She easily matched the early pace-setters and ended up lapping all of the other competitors in the run of her life. But it was the conditions which may prove to have been most beneficial - with torrential downpours over the weekend resembling that of the most ardent rainy season, leaving the track looking more like a paddy field!

With Pavey seeming to prefer the going a little moist underfoot, GB fans will be hoping the Land of the Rising Sun will exhibit the odd monsoon later this year.