EMMA Gooderham, from Wyre Piddle, finished second at the Soweto Marathon in South Africa. Gooderham completed the course in a personal best time of two hours 43 minutes 57 seconds, just 17 seconds behind winner Mamarollo Tjoka.

Her time now places her as the top British marathon runner in the veteran category (40 plus) this year and 15th overall in the country.

The tough course suited Gooderham following her Commonwealth ultra trail victory earlier this year and, after 12 kilometres, she was comfortably in the lead pack of six women. Unfortunately, the media cameras following the women proved an attraction for a number of male runners, who swamped the leading ladies and meant Gooderham failed to see a road speed bump at around the 13km mark, resulting in a nasty fall. The Malvern Joggers member picked herself up and continued running despite a badly bruised and bleeding arm, shoulder, hand and leg.

Finding herself in sixth place with around 10km to go, she gradually put the pressure on, overtaking a number of leading ladies and closing the gap on the overall leader. With 2km remaining, Gooderham was comfortably in second position and rapidly catching up with the lead woman over the closing miles, but was unable to overtake her, finishing in second.

Despite the hilly course, the race saw her knock nearly 10 minutes off her previous best marathon time. She said: “At 13km, before I knew it, I was crashing to the floor. “I didn’t let it stop me though, I picked myself up and got going, then assessed the damage as I ran. “I am still a bit of a mess five days on, but also so glad I could still race and finish. “I was rapidly catching the leading lady at the end and just finished 17 seconds behind her.

“If I hadn’t fallen I would have really given her a run for her money.”