20 June 2015

With four wins, that included a Championship Record and two European Leads, Great Britain and Northern Ireland team sit in a solid fourth position with 166.5 points at the end of the first day at the European Team Championships in Cheboksary, Russia.

In the final race of the day the men’s quartet of Richard Kilty (coach: Linford Christie), Danny Talbot (Dan Cossins), James Ellington (Christie) and Andy Robertson (Cossins) stormed to an impressive win in a Championship Record and European lead time of 38.21 – the fastest time the team has run outside a major championships in recent years.

Kilty, who earlier finished second in the men’s 100m in 10.35secs, said “My aim was just to go past those on the outside and I managed to do that – we were too good for them.

“It’s a massive improvement from the Bahamas and we’ve all come a long way since then and it’s a good little squad we’ve got here.”

Ellington, who ran a superb third leg, added: “That’s the fastest we’ve ever run outside of a champs, so to run 38.2 at this time of year is very positive and we can’t ask for anything more.”

Another European leading time was clocked by Eilidh Child (Malcolm Arnold), who took the women’s 400m hurdles win with 54.46.  Child, who ran a strong and determined  race to claim the maximum points for GBR, said: “I just went out there to exercise my stride pattern, I wanted to win the race obviously to get the points for the team, I knew it felt like a nice track yesterday when we came in to warm up, but I knew it was pretty windy so I wasn’t too bothered about the time  – so to win it and to knock a chunk off my season’s best I’m delighted and hopefully this can set me up for the next few weeks now.”

The day got off to a blistering start for the British team as Asha Philip (Steve Fudge) blew away the women’s 100m field to claim a maximum 12 points, saying after “It feels good that I’ve set the team off in a good way.”

With a victory in 11.27secs, into a -1.4m/s headwind, Philip added “I like this team event, it’s not just about me winning or losing, it’s about being here as a team.”

Jarryd Dunn (Keith Holt) was another Brit who produced a standout performance, clocking a new PB of 45.09 and a maximum 12 points for the team, with a hugely impressive win in the men’s 400m.  After, Dunn, who spent most of last year trying to re-establish himself after suffering a stress fracture in 2013, said: “I’ve raced three 400s this year and that was my third personal best – I’ve PB’d at every one of them, so that’s great. I would have liked the time to have been a tenth quicker than that like 44.9 but I’m going in the right direction given that six weeks ago my PB was 46.00 from 2012!”

Other performances of note included a throw of 75.91m from Nick Miller (John Baumann) in the hammer and a 9:59.75 from Lennie Waite (Steve Sisson) in the women’s 3000m steeplechase, with both claiming 11 points for the team and second position individually.  There was also an impressive third place from Great Britain debutant Oli Aitchison in the men’s 1500m, in a time of 3:52.06.

Olympic bronze medallist, Robbie Grabarz (Fuzz Ahmed) continued his comeback with a jump of 2.22m to finish 6th in the men’s high jump.  Grabarz said “It’s just fun to be jumping in a British vest again. I was caught out by the limited attempts to be honest – I really needed one more, I was getting one in three right today which was unfortunate but the ones I got right were amazing, the ones that didn’t work were pretty rubbish.”

Andy Vernon (Nic Bideau) was 3rd in the men’s 5000m in a time of 14.05.85, which earned the team 10 points.  And there were season’s bests for Laura Whittingham (Mike McNeill) in the javelin with 53.49m, Sally Peake (Scott Simpson) in the women’s pole vault with a clearance of 4.25m and Laura Samuel (Aston Moore) in the triple jump with 14.06m – earning nine points  for fourth place.

Another GBR debutant, Dan Bramble finished 8th in the men’s long jump with 7.61m.  Alison Leonard (Bud Baldaro) finished 8th in the Women’s 800m (2.03.06). Zane Duquemin was 11th in men’s shot put with a throw of 17.36m.  Kirsty Law (Jim Edwards) threw 50.93m in the Discus to finish in 10th spot whilst Lauren Deadman (Bill Foster) finished 8th in the women’s 3000m (9.28.84) and Seb Rodger came home in 5th in men’s 400m hurdles, with a time of 50.10.

Margaret Adeoye (Christie) gave a Team Captain’s performance winning her heat in the in women’s 400m in 52.07, coming 4th overall.  The Women’s 4x100m clocked 44.68, with 400m runner Laura Maddox (Colin Bovell) stepping up for the team and running the final leg as a late replacement for Asha Philip who missed the relay with muscle tightness.

The European Team Championships will be shown on BBC on Sunday at the following times:

Sunday: 12:30 – 14:05 (BBC2), or follow our coverage on Twitter – @britathletics

Day 1 winners

Asha Philip – 100m

Jarryd Dunn – 400m

Eilidh Child – 400m Hurdles

Men’s 4x100m relay

***ENDS***