USA's Molly Seidel has qualified for the Tokyo Olympics after she ran her first marathon at the national trials. 

The 25 year-old came second in a time of two hours 27 minutes and 31 seconds in Atlanta. 

She finished seven seconds behind first place Aliphine Tuliamuk. The third and final Tokyo spot went to 2012 Olympic 10,000m silver medallist Sally Kipyego.

Afterwards Seidel said: "I had no idea what this was going to be like. I didn’t want to oversell it and put way too much pressure on, knowing how competitive the field was going to be. But talking with my coach, I didn’t want to phone it in just because it was my first one."

She told USA Today: "I definitely did not expect to be up here.

"I wasn’t paying attention to the miles or pace and just going off feel and when we made our move I just wanted to keep running the pace I felt good at. But all the sudden it was kind of just the two of us. 

"The last part definitely hurt but it was calming to know it’s supposed to feel like this. It’s OK to hurt, it’s not OK to stop. A lot of it was trying to keep my emotions steady because it was a high tension situation."

In December she qualified for the national Olympic trials with her time in the half marathon of one hour, ten minutes and 27 seconds in San Antonio. 

Seidel will now begin her preparations ahead of Tokyo 2020.