Yee's The Best Of The Battling Brits

Amdouni, meanwhile, had two targets – the victory and the long-standing French record of Antonio Martins of 27:22.78 – but the 30-year-old was left a slightly frustrated runner-up after missing the mark by 14 seconds and the win by only a quarter of a second.

He will get his chance for revenge at the European Championships in Berlin, however, although Ringer will have home support there.

AGED 20, 32 and 37 respectively, Alex Yee, Andy Vernon and Chris Thompson represent different generations of the sport. Yet after 25 laps o blood, sweat and cheers they were separated by just over ha a second at the finish line last Saturday in a fantastic scrap fo British Championships honours.

Yee’s time of 27:51.94 was less than five seconds outside the British under-23 record of 27:47.0 set in 1971 by Dave Bedford, who was among the Highgate spectators.

“I’m pretty made up,” Yee told AW. “I came in not really sure what I could achieve and got the best result possible.”

Yee was a mere pacemaker at the 2017 event which was won by Vernon and he added: “I’m so lucky to have been given the opportunity this year to compete. I got the bug for Highgate last year and it’s so much fun to be around everyone cheering and to be part of it.”

Yee was content to settle in during the early stages of the race before moving into pole position in the British Championships battle in the closing laps. Going into the final 400m both Vernon and Thompson chased hard to catch him but fell just short in a frantic and near-blanket finish.

“I was just trying to run the best race I could and was unaware of everyone behind me,” said Yee, who also seemed oblivious to the European Championship selection implications.

Vernon, meanwhile, said: “That was tough. For the first three Brits it was a good little battle. We pretty much crossed the line together. It was clear who was first, second and third but it was very close.

“Alex is a tremendous talent,” Vernon added. “To run that time at 20 is tremendous.”