Amy Hunt completes four golds with mixed 4x100m victory at European Championships
Amy Hunt completed a quartet of gold medals for Britain by anchoring the mixed 4x100m relay to victory at the European Championships in Birmingham on Sunday. Britain set a European record of 39.97 seconds, with Germany second in 40.11 and Spain third.
Hunt became the first athlete in the 92-year history of the European Championships to win four gold medals at a single edition after chasing down Germany’s Gina Lückenkemper on the anchor leg and celebrating by holding up four fingers to the camera. “It’s just a dream come true – I’ll remember this week for the rest of my life,” she said after the race.
Hunt received the baton a fraction behind Lückenkemper before powering past her in the closing metres, completing what the report called an unprecedented quadruple over the course of the championships. Her teammates on the mixed relay were Jeremiah Azu, Dina Asher-Smith and Zharnel Hughes; Hunt also pointed to the contribution of the quartet and the late practice changeover in warm-up.
On the podium Hunt praised her teammates, adding: “To do it all together is incredible, especially because that was the first time we kind of did that changeover about an hour ago in warm-up. And look how smooth it was. Such professionals.” She also compared the adrenaline to a theme-park ride: “It was a bit like when you’re queueing for a rollercoaster and you’re a little bit nervous and you’re seeing the drops, and then when you get off you want to do it again. So it was that adrenaline kick certainly. I loved the event.”
Dina Asher-Smith reached a career milestone on the night by taking her tally to a record 11 European medals, surpassing Poland’s Irena Szewinska, while the mixed 4x100m was contested at these championships for the first time. The novelty increased risk in the exchanges: the Netherlands and Italy were disqualified.
Asher-Smith described her feelings before and during the race: “I’m gonna be completely frank with you, I was absolutely terrified,” and later, “When I gave that baton to Zharnel, I was so happy, I can’t lie. That’s exactly how I feel. Very unfiltered. I was just like ‘get this out of my hand – bye’.” Jeremiah Azu paid tribute to Asher-Smith’s influence on his career, saying, “I’ve never actually said this but when I first started athletics, obviously 2017, Dina was all everyone was talking about,” and describing how he watched her races and now felt honoured to be a teammate.
Earlier on Sunday Abbie Donnelly took a surprise bronze in the women’s marathon after an incident with footwear ahead of the race in Birmingham; she said, “I actually bought two different size shoes by accident to this race.” Donnelly became the first British woman to win a European championships marathon medal, finishing in 2:27.33, and added that she was helped when her boyfriend Shane arrived with the correct shoe and, she said, “It was half an hour beforehand that my boyfriend Shane put the chip on because I was so flustered.” Britain also won the women’s team event through Donnelly, Rose Harvey, Louise Small and Clara Evans-Graham.
Germany’s Amanal Petros won the men’s marathon in a championship record 2:09.11.
