FIONA Price has paid tribute to her Wiltshire coach Martin Rush for helping her to become a World Masters Championships gold medal team champion, writes KEVIN FAHEY.

The 50-year-old member of Avon Valley Runners was reflecting on her success last week at the global event in Spain when she finished third and final scorer for the Great Britain team that won the half marathon title.

Having only taken up the sport when she celebrated her 40th birthday that is a remarkable achievement and one that Price says wouldn’t have been possible without the input of Rush, who is based in Bradford on Avon.

“I have been coached by Martin since 2011 and he is a genius,” said Price, who lives in Westbury.

“When I took up the sport I was running on my own for a couple of years and had been running the same time of around 1hr 45mins for the half marathon on at least five occasions.

“I then decided to enter the Bath Half (marathon) and really wanted to improve so I found a training plan online from Martin and followed that and suddenly took 10 minutes off my personal best.

“My husband Sean then got in contact with Martin, we met up and had a chat and he agreed to coach me and I have not looked back since.”

With a more structured and strategic schedule to guide her, allied with a carefully thought out racing programme, Price has improved significantly not just in the half marathon but also at the full distance.

“Before I met Martin my marathon time was 4hr 40mins but within running another three marathons over two years I had brought that time down to 3:06.35 (London in 2014),” added Price.

Price then ran a personal best of 84:46 in the Bath Half the following year and those two marks remain her lifetime bests. As the years go by it will be increasingly difficult to better them but within the masters age groups she can remain highly competitive as she showed in Malaga last week and at the European Championships in Alicante earlier in the year when she placed ninth in the half.

“I am not running as fast now but I am going to give the half marathon a real bash next year and see if I can get that time down,” said Price.

“Also in 2019 there is the European Masters Championships in Venice followed in 2020 by the next World Championships in Toronto which will be a good target.”

As Price has proved time and again it is never too late to start running and with dedication and a good coach there should be no limits to what can be achieved.