Britain’s Amy Hunt sprinted to women’s 100m glory to take a brilliant gold at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham. The 24-year-old came into the event as favourite, having won world silver over 200m in Tokyo and 100m at the Commonwealth Games a fortnight ago – and she delivered in emphatic style.
Hunt is never the quickest starter. In truth, she started like a woman whose spikes had been superglued to her blocks. But she came through at the finish to win in 11.00sec. Ewa Swoboda of Poland took silver in 11.02 and Delphine Nkansa claimed bronze for Belgium in 11.06.
Moments earlier there was also a plucky silver for Great Britain’s mixed 4x400m relay team behind the gold medallists Norway. Britain’s team of Ben Jeffries, Charlotte Henrich, Toby Harries and Yemi Mary John all ran well. But a Norway team spearheaded by the 400m hurdles world record-holder Karsten Warholm and the fastest woman in Europe this year, Henriette Jæger, were too strong with a championship record of 3:09.62, nearly a second clear of Britain.
The only disappointment was that more people were not here to witness it given that the Alexander Stadium, which seats around 20,000, looked barely half full.
However, organisers told the Guardian 13,623 tickets had been sold for the Monday night – along with 170,000 tickets for the week – and that from Thursday night onwards the event was pretty much a sellout.
Britain’s Max Burgin was deeply puzzled after he bombed out in the Commonwealth Games in the semi‑finals 12 days ago – before realising later in the day that he was in the early stages of a nasty virus. The 24‑year‑old has barely run since, but he looked much more like his old self on Monday in winning a stacked 800m heat in 1min 45.80sec.
“The doctor said it was a virus so I had to take three or four days off, which I did, and when I got back into running after that I still felt rough so it just sort of dragged on for a bit longer than expected,” he said.
“Last week I’ve not managed to do too much running at all really and the bits that I have done haven’t inspired much confidence, so I really wasn’t too sure. I went into this heat just thinking I’d approach it a bit more conservatively. Sit off a little bit to start with, run a bit more traditional tactics. But we ended up being a lot faster than the Commonwealth Games heat.
“I was happy with how I ran it. Happy with my kick finish which is always good to know I’ve still got one. I don’t often see it. It was a good run out. I’m looking forward to the semis.”
Ben Pattison also made it through as the fastest non-automatic qualifier, finishing fourth in his heat but advancing with the fifth-fastest time overall in 1:45.40. “I tried to make a big move on the back straight and my legs weren’t really there, and then I kind of got caught up,” he said.
Ireland’s Mark English looked the best of the other qualifiers for the semi-finals on Wednesday, but his compatriot Cian McPhillips, who had reached the world 800m finals in Tokyo last year, is out after running far below his level because of a virus.
Britain’s Archie Yeo made it through to the men’s long jump final with 7.92m in his last leap. But the medals look to be between the Olympic champion, Miltiadis Tentoglou, of Greece, who qualified third with 8.26m, Italy’s Francesco Inzoli who jumped 8.34m and Serbia’s Luka Boskovic, who was just a centimetre back on 8.33m.
Elsewhere, Britain’s Lina Nielsen comfortably won her women’s 400m hurdles heat to breeze into the semi‑finals as the second-fastest qualifier in 55.08. “It felt really good, it felt really chill,” she said. “The plan was to conserve as much energy as you can whilst setting yourself up for the semis.
“It was a fine balance. I just told myself in the home stretch, don’t do too much, just hold everyone off and I actually took a cheeky look at the screen which I’ve never done in my career so that was quite fun.”
Asked whether she could challenge for a medal, she said: “Anything can happen in the final. I’m just taking it race by race. I think the semis will be very difficult, so my plan is to recover as best I can.”
Some of the other unheralded British stars also made a strong start. Jake Norris sneaked into the men’s hammer throw final on Tuesday by finishing ninth in qualification with a throw of 75.67m – despite struggling to wake up.
“I am happy with how I performed no matter what happens,” Norris said. “I am not much of a morning person, I struggled with the early wake up. But I am proud of how I have been throwing and training has been going well.
“Today was a reflection of how well training has been going. I was disappointed with my performance at Commonwealths, it felt like I didn’t show my capability. Today I got it back.”