JUST one week after missing out on the Paris Olympics, Melissa Courtney-Bryant defeated a double gold medallist from the Tokyo Games.

The Poole Athletic Club star came within 0.7 of a second of fulfilling her Olympic dream, finishing fourth in the Manchester women’s 1500m trial, which pitted five world-class athletes against each other for three Team GB Paris places.

Courtney-Bryant was a reluctant leader through 800m in a desperately slow 2:24.90. The furious burn-up which followed exposed her lack of recent quality racing after her preparation was marred by sickness.

Georgia Bell, the European silver medallist in Rome three weeks earlier, clocked 4:10.69, beating Laura Muir (4:11.59) to the gold as the pair scooped the automatic selection places. Revee Walcott-Nolan secured the final Olympic berth with a close third in 4:11.70.

Courtney-Bryant (4:12.39) did well to beat Katie Snowden (4:12.94), but the pair, both World Championship finalists in Budapest last August, missed out.

Within a week, however, Courtney-Bryant achieved a 4:03.58 1500m victory over Sifan Hassan, the 5,000m and 10,000m Tokyo Olympic champion, at Hengelo in The Netherlands.

Several other Dorset athletes ran in the Manchester trials. Verity Ockenden, a former Poole Runners junior, gained the women’s 5,000m UK Athletics Championship silver medal in 15:13.78, just 0.08s behind Hannah Nuttall, but neither had the Team GB qualifying time for Paris.

Bournemouth AC’s Brooke Ironside achieved a personal best 23.21s, finishing sixth in the 200m final, won by Dina Asher-Smith (22.18s) from Daryll Neita (22.46s).

Former Wimborne AC star Piers Copeland ran 3:41.22, after a 3:41.41 heat, to place ninth in the men’s 1500m final, won by Neil Gourley (3:37.67).

Poole AC’s William Rabjohns did well to achieve a place in the Olympic 800m trials at just 18, finishing sixth in his heat with 1:49.89. He followed up with a personal best 1:47.22 in a Challenger event at Birmingham University to satisfy the 1:48 Team GB requirement for the World Junior Championships.