More to come from delighted Partridge

The 33-year-old arrived in Russia ranked 95th in the world but quickly made a mockery of this ranking as she was placed 22nd at the 20km stage.

And despite the blistering heat Partridge didn’t let up, continuing through the field to cross the finish line in the Luzhniki Stadium in tenth in 2:36.24 hours.

This was only Partridge’s second World Championships outing and having finished 24th in Daegu two years ago, the Scot was able to toast a job well done in the Russian capital.

But despite breaking into the world’s top 10 Partridge, who splits her time between training and working as a researched at University of Leeds, believes her Russian adventure could have been even better.

“I started off and I was way back and for a minute I did wonder if I had been a little bit too cautious,” she said. “But if I had, I knew I could come back quicker as I know from experience, having done Korea two years ago and Barcelona which was a really hot one, that the heat doesn’t hit you fully until later on in the race.

“So for me it was just getting my rhythm going and I didn’t really think about the times or even paying attention to the kilometre markers – it was all about looking at the next person in front of me and trying to get past them and it was a proper race in that sense.

“There were bits that I wanted to run harder and I felt that I had run within myself and that there was more there.

“But it is not the same in the heat. You try and push a bit harder and you kind of wilt a little bit and like there is nothing there so it was probably not far off what I could have done – maybe I could have gone a little faster.”

Partridge’s top-10 finish rounds off a fine 2013 for her, having recorded a new personal best of 2:30.46 hours in finishing ninth at this year’s London Marathon.

And she insists she couldn’t be in a better place as she looks to deliver on home soil at the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

“This result gives me a lot of confidence as it’s scary to think I came in ranked near 100 and finished in the top 10,” she added.

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