ANGELA COPSON BEM

Angela Copson of Rugby & Northampton AC has been awarded a British Empire Medal in the New Years Honours List for her services to running.

Copson has broken 48 British, European & World records or bests in the Over 60 and Over 65 age groups.
She has achieved her records in distances ranging from 400m on the track right through to the Marathon and exactly half of these records have been World best times with 33 of them being European.
From 2007-2016 she was ranked No.1 in the UK in 73 events.
She has won 79 individual Championship medals from British, European and
World Championships over track, cross country and road races in her age group. 68 of these are Gold medals. She has never failed to win a medal in every single Championship event she has taken part in.
Of her 68 Gold medals, 10 have been in Masters World Championships, with another 13 in European Champs and 36 in BMAF Champs.
The remaining 9 Golds were won in an unprecedented 9 consecutive victories in the British & Irish Masters International Cross Country from 2008-2016. This included 4 in the W60 category and 5 in the W65.
In 2012 she was voted the European Masters athlete of the year.
On April 10th 2016 Copson became the oldest woman in history to break 3 hours 30 mins for the Marathon when she recorded a time of 3:24:54 at the age of 68 years 356 days in Manchester.
This gave her a current total of 30 officially recognised single age world records in distances from 3000m to the Marathon on track and road.

The British Empire Medal was re-established in the UK in 2012 and Copson , 69, has been running for only 10 years after initially taking up the sport to raise money for heart research at John Radcliffe hospital where her husband had been treated.