OXFORD’S Hannah England says she can be proud of her championship racing in 2014, despite twice finishing outside the medals, writes STUART WEIR.

England had to be content with seventh place in the Commonwealth Games 1,500m final before coming sixth in the European Championships.

Having won world silver over the metric mile in 2011 and come fourth in the same event last year, 27-year-old England was expected to put up more of a challenge for medals in Glasgow and Zurich.

The Oxford City athlete came seventh over 800m in Sunday’s Birmingham Diamond League meeting in a time of 2mins 1.96secs, with British winner Lynsey Sharp clocking 1.59.14.

When asked for her thoughts on running the two-lap distance, she replied: “I was quite ill in the winter and missed a lot of training.

“It would have been interesting to accept that I had missed that and done something different like the 800.

“But I never considered it, as I like the 1,500 too much and I believe in myself in that event.

“It was only in retrospect that I thought, maybe that would have been interesting.

“But I reached two championship finals this year in the 1,500 and am proud of what I achieved.”

She added: “I wanted to get involved in the first 400m, but I think I went too fast. “I would love to run some more Diamond League 800s and get more experience at this level.

“It was just to have fun in a different sort of race.” England is next scheduled to compete over 1,500m at the IAAF World Challenge meeting in Zagreb, Croatia next Tuesday.

And it remains at this distance that she sees her future.

She said: “I am frustrated about the 1,500 this year and want to go back to it next year.”

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