Amy Hunt wins women's 100m European gold in Birmingham in 11.00sec
Amy Hunt, 24, claimed the women’s 100m title at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham on Monday, finishing in 11.00sec. The British sprinter closed from a slow start to take gold ahead of Poland’s Ewa Swoboda and Belgium’s Delphine Nkansa.
Hunt arrived at the championships as the favourite after recent podiums, having won world silver over 200m in Tokyo and the 100m at the Commonwealth Games a fortnight ago. The 24-year-old is not the quickest starter but made up ground down the straight to secure victory in 11.00sec. Ewa Swoboda took silver in 11.02 and Delphine Nkansa took bronze in 11.06.
Earlier on the programme Britain took silver in the mixed 4x400m relay as Norway won in a championship record 3:09.62, finishing nearly a second clear of the home side. Britain’s quartet of Ben Jeffries, Charlotte Henrich, Toby Harries and Yemi Mary John all ran for the hosts, while Norway’s performance was described as spearheaded by the 400m hurdles world record-holder Karsten Warholm and Henriette Jæger, whom the report named as the fastest woman in Europe this year.
Organisers noted lower-than-expected local attendance on Monday despite ticket sales figures: the Alexander Stadium, which seats around 20,000, appeared barely half full, and organisers told the Guardian 13,623 tickets had been sold for the Monday night alongside 170,000 tickets for the week, with the event described as pretty much a sellout from Thursday onwards.
Britain’s Max Burgin, 24, who had been eliminated in the Commonwealth Games semi-finals 12 days earlier, said he had been ill with a virus and had barely run since, but won a stacked 800m heat in 1min 45.80. "The doctor said it was a virus so I had to take three or four days off, which I did, and when I got back into running after that I still felt rough so it just sort of dragged on for a bit longer than expected," he said. "Last week I’ve not managed to do too much running at all really and the bits that I have done haven’t inspired much confidence, so I really wasn’t too sure. I went into this heat just thinking I’d approach it a bit more conservatively. Sit off a little bit to start with, run a bit more traditional tactics. But we ended up being a lot faster than the Commonwealth Games heat. I was happy with how I ran it. Happy with my kick finish which is always good to know I’ve still got one. I don’t often see it. It was a good run out. I’m looking forward to the semis.”
Ben Pattison progressed as the fastest non-automatic qualifier after finishing fourth in his heat with the fifth-fastest time overall in 1:45.40. "I tried to make a big move on the back straight and my legs weren’t really there, and then I kind of got caught up," he said. Ireland’s Mark English was described as the best of the other qualifiers for the semi-finals on Wednesday, while Cian McPhillips was reported out after running far below his level because of a virus.
In field events, Britain’s Archie Yeo reached the men’s long jump final with a 7.92m leap on his final attempt; the report listed Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece qualifying third with 8.26m, Italy’s Francesco Inzoli at 8.34m and Serbia’s Luka Boskovic at 8.33m as the leading contenders. Lina Nielsen won her women’s 400m hurdles heat in 55.08 to qualify as the second-fastest, saying: "It felt really good, it felt really chill," and "The plan was to conserve as much energy as you can whilst setting yourself up for the semis." Jake Norris qualified for the men’s hammer final in ninth with a throw of 75.67m and said: "I am happy with how I performed no matter what happens. I am not much of a morning person, I struggled with the early wake up. But I am proud of how I have been throwing and training has been going well. Today was a reflection of how well training has been going. I was disappointed with my performance at Commonwealths, it felt like I didn’t show my capability. Today I got it back."
Several athletes who progressed from Monday’s rounds are due to contest semi-finals on Wednesday, including Max Burgin, Ben Pattison, Mark English and Lina Nielsen.