Wednesday saw another successful day for Team GB at the European Youth Olympics currently taking place in Tampere, Finland. In the day’s finals, there were no medals for Team GB as Lucy James finished 6^th in the women’s 400m in 56.19, Lauren Proctor was 8^th in the women’s 1500m in 4:28.23 and in the men’s 1500m Richard Goodman was 11^th in 4:06.10.

However, there are several more British athletes who made excellent progress. In the sprints, Jennifer Batten, Georgina Atkins, Laura Burke and Liam Clowes eased through their qualifying rounds.

Batten won her 200m semi final in 24.37 (-0.7m/s) to head the qualifiers for the final. Clowes won his heat in the men’s 200m in 21.87 (-0.7m/s) to qualify for the semi-finals as second-fastest. Burke finished third in the women’s 400m hurdles semi-final in 60.74 to safely progress to the final. Atkins was third in the women’s 100m hurdles semi-final in 13.78 (+0.1m/s).

Atkins, who qualified for tomorrow’s final in style said; “It feels great. My aim was to make the final in the hurdles, but now I want to go for a medal. The whole event has been brilliant, the stadium is great and to run in it with a Team GB vest on is fantastic.”

Batten was satisfied with her workout, “I felt a little bit tired after the heat because that’s three races in as many days now but I was pleased to make it through. I’m off to have some sleep now and get ready for the finals.”

Others to progress included Thomas Atkinson, Joseph Kent, Andrew Elkins and Yasmin Spencer. Atkinson won his 800m semi final in 1:53.97 to move through to the final, Kent won his qualifying group in the men’s high jump with 1.99m to ease through, Elkins squeaked through the men’s hammer qualifying in 10^th with 64.09m and Spencer qualified for the women’s shot final with 12.99m to finish 8^th.