WARRINGTON Athletics Club’s Harriet Knowles-Jones knocked almost three seconds off her personal best time when representing Great Britain in the 1500m final at the World Junior Championships in Poland.

The Lymm 18-year-old finished eighth of 12 finalists in the under 20s event in Bydgoszcz.

Knowles-Jones was towards the rear of the pack for the first 700 metres.

As the African and American runners took up the lead approaching the bell Knowles-Jones was in ninth place but seemed to be losing ground.

She continued to chase hard round the final lap to snatch eighth from the second Kenyan just before the line, clocking 4mins 15.49secs.

“It wasn’t my best race but I am delighted to have made the final and finish eighth in the world,” she said.

Knowles-Jones finished sixth in her heat in 4mins 21.91secs, missing out on the automatic top-four qualifying spots.

She progressed to the final as the slowest of the four fastest non-automatic qualifiers.

Result: 1, Adanech Anbesa (Ethiopia) 4mins 08.07secs; 2, Fantu Worku (Ethiopia) 4:08.43; 3, Christina Aragon (USA) 4:08.71; 4, Winfred Nzisa Mbithe (Kenya) 4:09.25; 5, Alexa Efraimson (USA) 4:12.23; 6, Beatha Nishimwe (Rwanda) 4:12.33; 7, Bobby Clay (GB) 4:13.09; 8, Harriet Knowles-Jones (GB) 4:15.49; 9, Joyline Cherotich (Kenya) 4:15.72; 10, Lili Das (India) 4:17.29; 11, Fatma Arik (Turkey) 4:20.90; 12, Olivia Burdon (NZ) 4:25.94.