In June 1987, Wade scored one of her biggest career wins, when she won the European Cup 1500 metres in Prague, defeating future World and Olympic champion Tatyana Samolenko. In July, she ran her lifetime best for the 1500 m with 4:00.73 in Gateshead. In August, she ran her 3000 metres best of 8:47.70, to become only the second British woman, after Christina Boxer, to have run sub two-minutes for the 800 metres and sub nine-minutes for the 3000 metres (the feat has since been achieved by Hannah England, Jessica Judd and Laura Muir). In September, in the 1500m final at the World Championships in Rome (won by Samolenko), she was sixth in 4:01.41. She originally finished seventh but was promoted after the disqualification of Sandra Gasser. For the third consecutive year, she ranked in the top ten at 1500/mile, in the Track &amp; Field News merit rankings, at number 6.