18 July 2015  

On the third day of the European Athletics Junior Championships, Callum Wilkinson (Mick Graham, Enfield & Haringey) set a new British junior track record in the 10,000m race walk on his way to an impressive seventh place finish in Eskilstuna, Sweden.  

Wilkinson took nearly a minute and a half off his personal best to finish in 41:34.63 and surpass the previous best junior mark of 41:52.13 set by Darrell Stone in 1987.

The 18 year old, who was being cheered on by his family in the crowd said: “I trained for that time. Going into the race, I wasn’t sure whether I’d get that but it started off quick and took the lead after about 1.5km. That shows that I was in good shape and I’m really pleased to get the time as it was quicker than I thought I would have went. The position was really good to so ultimately it was a really good performance for me.

“I know seventh was the best position by a race walker at these championships set by Jamie Higgins two years. That was the target position wise and I’ve done that. I almost got fifth but I couldn’t quite catch the people in front of me. I knew the British record for the track was 41:52, so that was the target time wise. I smashed it all the way through and didn’t really drop off. It was tough but I just kept that rhythm going and my technique really held throughout the race.”  

Adele Nicholl (Vladimir Zinchenko, Birchfield Harriers) threw a new lifetime best of 15.46m in the shot put to secure her place in this evening’s final. Nicholl, who topped her previous best by 23cm needed just one throw to go through as an automatic qualifier. 

“I hoped that I’d come here today and do one throw so I could go back and relax before the final. To get a PB is great. What I’ve noticed is it’s definitely down to positive thoughts, not doubting myself at all and coming out here knowing I could do it.

“I’ve qualified in third so it depends what the other girls do, but I think I can throw further. On PB’s and rankings I was 10^th but it goes to show rankings don’t necessarily mean anything.”  

Tim Duckworth (Toby Stevenson, University of Kentucky) got his decathlon campaign underway this morning clocking 11.19 in the 100m, before going on to record personals best of 7.12m and 11.84m in the long jump and shot put respectively. The USA-based athlete currently stands in 16th place on 2258 points, 290 points off the bronze medal position with the high jump and 400m to come later on this afternoon.  

It was good news for George Armstrong (Michael Swain, Leeds City), who finished with a best throw of 54.66m in the discus to take the last qualifying spot for tomorrow’s final. 

You can find a full list of results and streaming will be live here this afternoon: http://www.european-athletics.org/

GB & NI medal tally at the European Athletics Junior Championships in Eskilstuna, Sweden:

Gold (2) – Ojie Edoburun (100m), Laviai Nielsen (400m)

Silver (3) – Joseph Dewar (100m), Jacob Fincham-Dukes (long jump), Cheriece Hylton (400m)