British middle-distance runner Hannah England looks forward to a busy summer of 1500m racing on the track and miling on the road

Currently training at altitude in California, Hannah England will drop down to sea level soon to open a season that she hopes will culminate with success in the 1500m at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow and European Championships in Zurich.

Like most middle-distance runners, though, the 27-year-old loves the magic of the mile and the classic distance of 1609m also features in her 2014 plans.

England will race the metric mile or 1500m in Los Angeles this month followed by the same distance at the Prefontaine Classic in Oregon at the end of May. Her priority is to show form ahead of the England Athletics selection deadline of June 1, but beyond that there is a strong chance she could take to the roads of the British capital over one mile on June 22.

England is an ambassador for the Amba Hotels City of London Mile one of several major mile events being held this year to coincide with the 60^th anniversary of Sir Roger Bannister s first sub-four-minute mile.

Not surprisingly for someone who was born in Oxford, the city that staged Bannister s famous feat, England enjoys racing over the mile. But she is keeping her options open at present due to the European Team Championships taking place on the same weekend in Germany and the fact that the Sainsbury s British Championships is the following weekend in Birmingham.

Road miles are also quite different to track races, as she explains: It feels totally different to racing the same people over a track 1500m. It’s always interesting to see how people respond to no splits and no pacemakers, and have a course influence the way the race pans out.”

England s road mile appearances have mainly come in the Great North CityGames in Newcastle and the Fifth Avenue Mile in New York City. I have enjoyed running road miles over the last few years,” she says.

Many of these have come after championships,” she adds. After the finesse and attention to detail involved in attacking a championship it s great fun to get out and have pure running race.”

Like many middle-distance runners, England enjoys the idea of the mile distance making a revival, too. The pressure for qualifying times does mean the 1500m has become more and more popular,” she says. It is a shame, but I think that is the way track meets are going.

I think the mile distance is becoming really well established on the road circuit. It’s an unusual race environment for current athletes anyway so lends itself well to a less frequently contested distance.

I have run a 4:23 mile in New York which I think is not quite as good at my 4:01 1500m PB, so it would be interesting to see what I would run for a mile at the peak of the season.”

More immediately, though, she is focused on running well over 1500m on the track. Her 4:03.38 was the fastest time in the UK in 2013, but she also ran 4:01.89 during a 2011 season that saw her finish runner-up at the IAAF World Championships in Daegu.

At last year s IAAF World Championships in Moscow, England again showed her championship pedigree by finishing fourth. With no global championships this year, though, she hopes to improve on her performances at the last Commonwealth Games in Delhi when she finished just outside the podium positions.

The qualification period is much earlier than I have had to plan for in the last few years and not something that I am approaching half-heartedly,” she explains, speaking from 6000ft above sea level at Mount Laguna, where she is training with a group that includes her husband, the international steeplechaser Luke Gunn.

We have some fantastic 1500m runners in England and the UK and this plays a big part in my motivation to train hard day to day, because I know every one of them is also training hard!”

Indeed, potential English rivals include Charlene Thomas, Laura Weightman and Lisa Dobriskey, while Laura Muir will be running on home soil for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games.

The Amba Hotels City of London Mile is on June 22 and you can join a special Athletics Weekly wave by entering here

See the May 1 sub-four special issue of Athletics Weekly for more on Hannah England

The post Hannah England’s high hopes appeared first on Athletics Weekly.