LOUISE Damen was beaming on Wednesday (July 23) as she recovered from her tremendous bronze medal in the 10,000m in the U23 European Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland, last weekend and confessed it was only her third ever attempt at the mammoth distance.

The 20 year-old Bournemouth Athletic Club runner maintains she is still inexperienced at the distance, which rarely features in domestic meetings.

"If you had told me at the start of the season that I would win a medal at the Championships, I would have been very chuffed," said Damen.

Despite going into the event ranked in the top three, the cool-headed Damen was refusing to accept that a medal was inevitably forthcoming.

"Anything can happen in the 10,000m," said the Loughborough student. "People were hanging medals on competitors necks before the races were run and the event showed that these predictions are never definite."

Damen, trained by Aldershot-based Mick Woods, also stressed the difference in running international competition compared to races at home.

"In domestic races I always tend to act as a pacemaker, running as hard as possible at the start and holding on in the second half of the race, but championship events are much more reliant on tactics."

Strategically, Damen believes that the race went according to plan.

"I was aware that the first 5,000m had been very slow, and that there were many excellent 1500m runners with quick finishes in them against me.

"I had to attack earlier than them to grind down the group, which worked as it thinned down to five runners.

"Then we lost two more and I knew I was in with a chance of a medal for sure.

"At the bell I knew the Hungarian (gold medallist Krisztina Papp) had run some awesome times and I just couldn't keep up with her, but I was happy because I ran my best and achieved a negative split time."

Unfortunately, Damen will be too old to contest the next U23 championships in 2007, but she is confident her triumph in Poland will be a great stepping stone for senior events.

In the foreseeable future, Damen is happy to turn her attention to shorter distances and league matches. She hopes to be able to represent Bournemouth AC again this summer after spending a great deal of time recently focussing on international events.

However, provided she is selected, Damen also has the small matter of another international U23 meeting at Ashford in Kent, next month, where she plans to run the 3,000m.