CITY of Plymouth’s Poppy Tank produced an impressive run to claim a top-30 finish for Great Britain in the senior women’s race at the World Cross Country Championships in Tallahassee, Florida, on Saturday.

Tank paced her race perfectly and gradually moved up the field over the unusual 10k course, which featured a scaffolding hill called the rollercoaster, a beach section, a mud pit, a bright blue pond and alligator-shaped hurdles.

She was down in 46th place after the first 2k lap, but she kept picking athletes up during the five-lap event, which was run in hot conditions, and finished 29^th.

The warm temperature did take its toll on a number of athletes, but not Tank, who looked really strong at the finish.

She was the second British athlete to cross the line, just behind Megan Keith, who was 25^th. Tank was also the seventh European runner to finish and helped GB to seventh place in the team event.

She was also just one of five British individual athletes across four races to finish in the top 30.

Britain’s best finisher on the day was Michael Clark, who came 20^th in the junior men’s race.

“It was very hard,” said Tank afterwards. “I went out very cautiously as I know from (the World Championships in) Australia how hot and long it is.

“It’s the longest cross country course route we do and I made sure I felt as good as I could until about three laps to go and then just slowly started picking people off.”

She added: “It means a lot to be on the world stage. I coach myself, I do a lot of things on my own, I train alone and I am very independent to a fault, but I am really proud of myself.

“And with the other girls (Megan Keith, Phoebe Anderson and Verity Ockenden), I am really good friends with all three of them, and I love competing with them and it’s always a great honour.”

Anderson finished 35^th and Ockenden 41^st. The race was dominated by African athletes, who filled 11 of the top 12 places. The top European finisher was Spain’s Maria Forero in 14^th spot.

There was also joy at the weekend for young City of Plymouth athlete Annabelle Fasuba, who claimed the South of England under-17 girls’ 60m title.

After an horrendous journey to Lee Valley, 14-year-old Fasuba eased through the heats and semi-finals before saving her best for the final, which she won in 7.51 seconds.

That was just shy of the 7.44 second time the double English Schools’ champion ran on her indoor season debut on December 28.