Thompson gets her call-up for England

Thompson, now studying and training at Birmingham University, will compete for England at the Elan Indoor Athletics Meeting to be staged in the Slovakian capital Bratislava this Sunday.

Her selection for the 800m event came after a series of top performances in recent weeks.

It all began on New Year’s Day when the Banbury Harrier ran 800m at Lee Valley in London, posting a big indoor best time of two minutes 0.8 seconds. It was a time that took her to the top of the women’s under-20 national rankings for the winter season and up to second in the senior rankings.

Thompson followed that up six days later with another indoor best, this time in the 1500m, when she ran a time of four minutes 29 seconds at the British Milers Club meeting in Sheffield to go sixth in the senior indoor 1500m rankings.

Thompson, who is coached by Luke Gunn, went on to demonstrate her versatility and endurance by leading her Birmingham University team home to victory in the Midland Women’s Cross Country League fixture earlier this month.

More than 150 women from across the Midlands contested the four-mile course on the challenging hills over Burton Dassett Country Park.

Thompson judged her run well to finish strongly in 26 minutes 31 seconds, claiming an impressive fourth place.

With Thompson’s team-mates Emma Houchell in fifth, Sabrina Sinha sixth and Louisa Whittingham 17th making it an impressive team performance for Birmingham, they did enough to secure the overall team victory ahead of Loughborough University.