Dhaka, Sept. 15 -- When Julia Paternain took a surprise third in the women's marathon in Tokyo to claim Uruguay's first medal in World Athletics Championships history, it was winning the English Schools 3,000m title which flashed through her mind.

The 25-year-old's family are from Uruguay but she moved to the UK with her parents aged two.

She won back-to-back national schools 3,000m titles in 2017 and 2018 and ran for Great Britain at the 2019 European Under-23s Championships, where she finished sixth in the 10,000m.

Ranked 288th in the world in the marathon and in only her second competitive race at the distance, Paternain was not expected to vie for a medal in Japan.

"My whole family is from Uruguay, but I was thinking back to the E...