Steph Twell was happy with her road 10-mile debut as she made her first tentative steps towards following in the footsteps of world marathon record holder Paula Radcliffe.

Twell, who is based at St Mary’s Twickenham, plans eventually to switch from the track to the road full-time and showed her potential at Sunday’s Great South Run in Portsmouth.

Twell, who took 1,500m bronze for Scotland at the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, finished sixth in 53 minutes, 52 seconds, the third British finisher in the event.

“I ran a conservative race because, to be honest, all my training this summer has been based around the 1,500m.

“That was not exactly the best preparation for this distance.

“I felt comfortable throughout the race and it was something new for me to do.

“I will move up eventually to longer distances – but not for the moment.

“Before I do I want to run a really fast 1500m time,” added Twell, who should peak on the track at the 2012 London Olympics.

Thames Hare & Hounds’ Charlotte Saunders was 279th out of almost 6500 women in a personal best 1:06:50.

Twickenham’s Scott Overall went to the top of the UK rankings when in clinched fourth place out of the 15,000 runners in the men’s race.

Overall clocked 47:37, beating Scot Andy Lemoncello by four seconds.

Overall’s time also took 23 seconds in finishing fourth in the same event last year.

St Mary’s students Gary Thornton (48:22) and Matt Ashton (50:22), also making their debuts over the distance, were eighth and 20th.

Serpentine’s Nick Torry, top British finisher in the Cabbage Patch race at Twickenham the previous weekend, was 13 seconds faster with a lifetime best of 50:02 which lifts him to 15th in this year’s UK rankings.

Neil Phillips (51:30) was 28th with St Mary’s colleague Steven Connor (51:35) 29th and Andrew Conway (54:05) 38th.

Also in the toop 100 were Belgrave’s Kevin Gadd in 74th (59.45), Epsom & Ewell teenager Ollie Garrod in 77th (1:00.11) and Clapham Chasers’ Stuart Bramfeld in 84th (1:00.20).