Canada’s Nicole Edwards in her first 1500m outdoor race of 2010, edged runner-up Great Britian’s Jemma Simpson by 0.05 seconds at the Oxy High Performance meeting held at the Patterson Field/Bill Henry Track in Eagle Rock, California on May 22nd. This is the fastest time for a Canadian this outdoor season and moves her to the 9th fastest on the World list.
In the elite race, Edwards defeated the reigning UK champion over 800m in a time of 4 mins 06.34 seconds. This was a dramatic improvement for this native of Winnipeg, who graduated last year from the University of Michigan. Her previous best for 1500m was 4:12.05 set on a European tour in 2009. She attributes this post graduation breakthrough to increasing her strength and endurance training. Her goal for the year after representing Canada at the World Indoor Championships in Doha in March, is qualify for the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India in October.