13 July 2013 

Katarina Johnson-Thompson (coach: Mike Holmes) made a good start to her heptathlon campaign during the morning session of day three at the European Under 23 Championships in Tampere, Finland.

The world junior long jump champion raced to an early lead with 1053 points after winning the 100m hurdles in a time of 13.48, equalling her personal best in the process. She then went on to clear a best height of 1.84m in the high jump, the best in the competition, to take her score to 2082 points after two events and extend her lead over Anastasiya Mokhnyuk of the Ukraine to 42points.

In the women’s 1500m, Laura Muir (Andy Young) ran a smart tactical race to stay out of trouble and come through to second position in the closing stages to qualify for the final automatically with a time of 4:15.19. This performance was repeated in the men’s 1500m as Charlie Grice (Jon Bigg) finished strongly and crossed the line in third place in 3:42.95, also an automatic qualifier for the final tomorrow.

Lorraine Ugen (Frank Attoh) safely made it through long jump qualification to book her place in tomorrow’s final. The 21 year old fouled her first attempt but followed it up with 6.32m in the second round to qualify in fourth position as only 100m champion Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands hit the automatic qualifying mark of 6.45m.

In the women’s javelin qualifying, Izzy Jeffs (David Parker) was unfortunate to miss out on a place in the final. Jeffs threw 51.88m in the third round which put her into 12th place in overall, only to miss out on a final berth by one position after dropping to 13th when Hanna Habina of the Ukraine threw 54.71m.