Gold for Simeon Williamson and silver medals for Craig Pickering and Montell Douglas sped Norwich Union Great Britain and Northern Ireland to fourth place in the medals table on the second evening of the European Under 23 Championships at Debrecen, Hungary, on Friday 13 July. Here is how all the drama unfolded for the team during the second evening session:

Men’s 100m final: At the 2005 European Junior Championships in Kaunas, Lithuania, Craig Pickering (Marshall Milton Keynes AC) won the 100m gold medal and Simeon Williamson (Highgate Harriers) took the silver medal – after Williamson beat him in the semi-final. Williamson has been doggedly winding his spring of revenge ever since that rainy night. And he unleashed it so swiftly in sunny Debrecen that first he false started and at the second ‘bang’ his reaction time was officially measured at 0.117 seconds. Lightning! Williamson flashed over the finish line in 10.10 seconds – aided by a breeze of a mere 0.2 metres per second – with Pickering second in 10.14. Both times are lifetime bests. Both beat the Championship record of 10.16 run in last night’s semi-finals by Martial Mbandjock (France), who finished with the bronze medal in 10.27 seconds tonight.

So did Williamson consciously start so quickly? “I don’t know,” he beamed. “I was nervous. I wasn’t nervous in the warm-up. But in the call room it was so quiet. I’ve never been so nervous. Out on the track … in the blocks … false start … I thought, ‘Here we go!’ Under pressure I don’t usually drive out of the blocks. But this time I remembered what Lloyd [Cowan, his coach at the UK Athletics North London High Performance Centre at Lee Valley] has been drilling into me, ‘Keep driving, keep driving, keep driving.’ I came up and couldn’t see anyone. Then I saw Craig coming up on my outside at 80 metres. But I kept my technique and … oh man, for two years I’ve been waiting for this.”

Pickering revealed he had two injections last night to solve the back problems that hampered him in the semi-finals and said: “He deserves that. There’s not very much I could do about it. I did all I could. I ran a PB.”

But the last words on this occasion must go to the new European Under 23 100 Champion, Simeon Williamson: “Please make sure you thank for me Lloyd, who has coached me for three years now; Christine Bloomfield, who did my drills sessions during the winter; Alf Vickers for looking after my well-being and welfare; and all the family and friends who have supported me over the years.”