20 July 2013

The GB & NI camp was in high spirits this morning after last night’s medal rush, and things seemed to carry on where they left off.

The sun was shining as Greg Thompson (Coach: Neville Thompson) took to the field in group A of the men’s discus qualifying, and he waited until his last throw to secure automatic qualification for tomorrow afternoon’s final. His 56.13m throw clipped the net, so he’ll be looking to up his game tomorrow afternoon.

Nick Percy (John Hillier) went in group B, and produced a sterling second round effort of 60.63m, the second furthest of both qualifying groups, confirming his place in the final.

In the only final of the morning session, Jamie Higgins (Andi Drake) rose to the occasion, smashing his lifetime best to finish seventh. The race went out very hard however Higgins sat back, working his way through the field in the latter stages to cross the line in 42.25.06, a 17 second personal best.

The men’s 4x400m relay was the only other track event with British interest this morning, and the quartet delivered a seamless performance to qualify second quickest for tomorrow’s final. Alex Boyce (Robert Roberts) ran a great first leg to put the team in a strong position, before Scott Atkinson (Christopher Bedford), Elliot Rutter (Dan Cossins) and George Caddick (Dominic Tighe) finished the job, Caddick running an impressive anchor leg to move the team up to second. Russia took the win in 3.07.78, with GB & NI second in 3.08.31.

There was no messing about for women’s team captain Sophie McKinna (Geoff Capes) in the shot put qualifying round. She produced a first round throw of 15.83m, easily booking her place in this afternoon’s final.

Jazmin Sawyers (Alan Lerwill) rounded out another good session for the GB & NI team, advancing to tomorrow evening’s final courtesy of a 6.38m jump. Sawyers seems to be starting to reproduce the kind of form she showed when taking World Junior Championship bronze in Barcelona last summer, and her automatic qualification for the final will be a great confidence boost ahead of her assault on another international medal. 

For start lists and full results, please click here: http://la.sportresult.com/ajax/eaa2.asp?module=timetable_date&event_id=10013400000002&lang=en

You can also follow updates of all GB & NI performances via our twitter page: @BritAthletics 

A live stream of the event can be found on the European Athletics website: http://eurovision.digotel.com/ea/index.html