Emma Mitchell achieves Commonwealth 10,000m standard with latest NI mark

Emma Mitchell bettered Teresa Duffy's previous Northern Ireland 5,000m record last weekend

Queen's athlete Emma Mitchell achieved the Commonwealth Games 10,000m standard as she set her second Northern Ireland record in a week on Saturday night.

Running in London, Mitchell clocked 32 minutes and 51.78 seconds to take almost 42 seconds off Teresa Duffy's 1997 Northern Ireland mark (33:33.70).

Mitchell's time in Britain's World Championships trial was over 14 seconds inside the Commonwealth Games mark.

The 23-year-old also bettered Duffy's 21-year-old NI 5,000m mark last week.

On Saturday night, Mitchell was competing in the Highgate Harriers Night of the 10,000m PBs meeting at the Parliament Hill track on Hampstead Heath.

Elizabeth Potter took victory in 32:04.63 ahead of Steph Twell (32:16.23), with Jo Pavey taking fourth in 32:42.93.

Mitchell finished seventh to book her spot at next year's Commonwealth Games in the Australian city of Gold Coast.

"The race just went fantastically for me," Mitchell told BBC Sport Northern Ireland.

"I went to halfway in 16:22 which was exactly the pace that my coach Eamonn Christie had told me to aim for.

"It's been the best week of my running life after breaking the Northern Ireland 5,000m record in Solihull last weekend.

"It's great to have the Commonwealth 10,000m standard in the bag now and I can plan my training and preparations for next year."

Meanwhile, Strabane Academy student Sommer Lecky's set a new Northern Ireland junior high jump record as she also equalled the Irish junior high jump record of 1.85m at the Ulster Schools Athletics Championships at Antrim.

The performance bettered Ursula Fay's 34-year-old Northern Ireland junior record by one centimetre.

The Finn Valley athlete's leap also equalled Deirdre Ryan's Irish Under-20 record set in 2001 as she added three centimetres to her previous best set two weeks ago.

Lecky, 16, will compete in for Northern Ireland in the Commonwealth Youth Games in the Bahamas in July.