11th October 2014

Gemili Wins European Award

 

11 October 2014

Adam Gemili has won the European Athletics Rising Star award at the Golden Track awards in Azerbaijan to complete a successful year for the 21 year-old. He has enjoyed a breakthrough season at senior level, winning double gold in the 200m and 4x100m relay in Zurich at the European Championships.

Gemili was presented the award at the ceremony in Baku where the best athletes in Europe came together for a special gala evening to celebrate the achievements of 2014. He beat the best young European athletes to the award including fellow Briton; European 400m silver medallist and 4x400m gold medallist, Matthew Hudson-Smith.

The 21 year-old sprinter went into the final of the 200m as one of the favourites but faced tough opposition from the Frenchman, Christophe Lemaitre, the 2010 European 200m champion. However, the Blackheath & Bromley athlete reached his best form and dominated the race to win the 200m title in a European leading time of 19.98 which equalled his personal best.

Gemili returned to the track a few days later as part of the 4x100m quartet. On the final day of action at the Letzigrund Stadium, the team of Dwain Chambers, Harry Aikines-Aryeetey and Richard Kilty handed over to Gemili who anchored the team to relay gold and took Britain’s gold medal tally to 12 for the Championships.

Prior to his gold medal double in Zurich, Gemili had produced medal winning performances for Team England at the Commonwealth Games as well. He won silver in the 100m behind Kemar Bailey-Cole of Jamaica and contributed to further silver success in the 4x100m relay team as well at Hampden Park in Glasgow.

All the award winners can be found on the European Athletics website.