11 July 2013

GB & NI made a strong start to the European Under 23 Championships in Tampere, Finland, as ten athletes progressed to the next round of their event during the first session of competition.

All three of GB & NI’s male 100m runners made it through to this afternoon’s semi-final. Adam Gemili (coach: Michael Afilaka) was the quickest qualifier as he won heat four in a time of 10.42, closely followed by compatriot Deji Tobais (Jonas Tawiah-Dodoo) who won the first heat in 10.47. Samuel Osewa (Clarence Callender) was second in heat two and the fifth quickest qualifier overall with 10.52.

Both of GB & NI’s female 100m runners also advanced beyond the first round as Jodie Williams (Stanley Madiri) ran a time of 11.49, second quickest overall, to comfortably win the third heat while Rachel Johncock (Afilaka) also secured automatic qualification by finishing second in the opening heat with a time of 11.78.

Niall Flannery (Nick Dakin) and Sebastian Rodger (Stephen King) both won their heats in the 400m hurdles with times of 49.97 and 50.87 respectively to qualify for the semi-finals, which take place tomorrow afternoon. In the fourth heat, Jack Green (Malcolm Arnold) hit the third hurdle and was unable to complete the race.

In the women’s high jump qualification, Isobel Pooley (Fuzz Ahmed) jumped 1.84m to secure straightforward qualification for the final on Saturday afternoon.

Zane Duquemin (John Hillier) recorded 18.11m in the qualifying round of the men’s shot to make it to this evening’s final as the eleventh qualifier. Nick Miller (John Baumann) also safely made if through qualification as he threw 67.41m in the hammer, seventh furthest overall.

Ashley Bryant (Ian Grant) got his decathlon campaign off to a strong start as he finished second in his 100m heat with a time of 11.12. He then twice broke his personal best in the long jump with leaps of 7.51m and 7.53m and sat in second place after two events with 1776 points. The 22 year old followed this up with a throw of 13.76m in the shot put and closed the gap on leader Kai Kazmirek of Gernany to just 41 points with a total of 2490, despite dropping to fifth place in the standings.

Full results can be found here.