Label volunteer, Annie Bradshaw, brings you our latest sports piece on the Indoor Athletic Championships.
The European Indoor Athletic Championships went ahead in Glasgow last week and it was definitely one to remember; with the Brits coming second in the medals table to Poland, gaining the most medals overall and landing their record indoor medal tally.
Laura Muir was the star of the weekend on her home turf, winning her second European indoor double, in both the 1500m and 3000m. Not only was she the first to win both events in the history of the competition, but she did so with ease. Melissa Courtney secured bronze in the 3000m with a personal best, just behind Muir.
The Pentathlon was a great watch, with two GB athletes in the mix. Gold medallist, Johnson-Thompson, delivered 2 pentathlon championship records with strong performances in all of her other events. The world record, however, slipped through her fingers, being just seconds away from it in the last event. It was a performance to be proud of.
Loughborough’s Niamh Emerson had her perfect day, gaining a personal best in all 5 events. Only 19, Emerson was going into the final event (800m) in second, but with only a 10-point lead. She certainly put up a fight, literally falling over the line to cling onto her silver medal. Emerson made records herself, being the first under-20 athlete to score over 4,700 points. She is definitely one to look out for in the future.
In the men’s heptathlon we also gained a place on the podium, with Tim Duckworth getting silver. The 22-year-old achieved a 7 second personal best in the 1000m which secured him a medal and a performance to remember, being the first Brit to reach the podium in this event at the European Indoors.
The success didn’t stop there, with Shelayna Oskan-Clarke setting out her stall and leading from start to finish in the 800m, and gaining her a gold medal. In the Men’s, Jamie Webb also had a great performance winning the silver medal.
Chris O’Hare got silver in the 3000m, which was a great performance against the 18-year-old Norwegian, Ingebrigsten, who has been in great form.
Moving onto the shorter distances, Asha Philip obtained bronze in the 60m, pipping Kristal Awuah by one-thousandth of a second. In the men’s race Richard Kilty unfortunately missed out on a medal finishing 4th.
Holly Bradshaw was battling it out for the gold medal with Sidorova, however, she ended up with silver in the pole-vault, failing to clear 4.85m to get the win.
The competition was concluded with a silver medal for the women’s 4 x 400m, which was a great round up of a great competition.
Bring on Tokyo 2020!
Featured image by: Omeiza Haruna
