Britain tops Euro U23 Champs medals table

British athletes have topped the medals desk on the European Below-23 Championships for the primary time within the occasion’s 26-year historical past.

With seven golds and 14 medals in whole, the squad completed forward of France, Netherlands, Spain and Norway on the 2023 occasion in Espoo, Finland, which drew to a conclusion on Sunday (July 16).

British winners included:

Jeremiah Azu – males’s 100mYemi Mary John – girls’s 400mCharles Hicks – males’s 5000mMegan Keith – girls’s 5000mRory Leonard – males’s 10,000mAlice Goodall – girls’s 10,000mAlyson Bell, Cassie-Ann Pemberton, Amy Hunt, Aleeya Sibbons – girls’s 4x100m

Meet up with our earlier protection of the championships right here.

Jeremiah Azu (Getty)

Silver medallists for Britain included Ethan Hussey (800m), Charlotte Payne (hammer) and Serena Vincent (shot put).

Bronze medallists have been Will Barnicoat (5000m), Shannon Flockhart (1500m), Keely Hodgkinson (400m) and the lads’s 4x400m group.

On the ultimate evening in Espoo, Hussey completed simply three hundredths of a second behind France’s Yanis Meziane over two laps because the Briton clocked 1:45.95. In fifth, Sam Reardon clocked 1:47.06 earlier than returning quickly afterwards to affix team-mates Ethan Brown, Brodie Younger and Ed Faulds within the 4x400m as they clocked 3:03.12 in third behind Turkey and winners Italy (3:02.49).

Sophie O’Sullivan and Sarah Healy of Eire dominated the ladies’s 1500m as Flockhart fought arduous to earn bronze in a PB of 4:08.37. Healy led many of the race however was out-kicked by O’Sullivan within the residence straight because the winner ran 4:07.18.

Sophie O’Sullivan, Sarah Healy and Shannon Flockhart (Getty)

O’Sullivan is the daughter of three-time European and world 5000m champion Sonia and this was Eire’s first-ever European under-23 title.

The 21-year-old mentioned: “My plan was simply to maintain up with these women till just like the final 200m earlier than the end. So, I simply tried to remain as shut as I might. Then I simply needed to get going. I didn’t matter that a lot concerning the time however I felt it was my likelihood.

READ MORE: Leonard and Goodall win 10,000m titles

“Earlier than the race, my mom simply suggested me to remain as shut as I can. She wished me luck, nothing too loopy, simply to take pleasure in it. She continues to be each for me – an ideal athlete and a mum.”

Lengthy soar winner Larissa Iapichino can be the daughter of an athletics nice, on this case the two-time world champion and twice Olympic silver medallist Fiona Could. Right here in Espoo, Iapichino jumped an out of doors PB of 6.93m (1.2) to take gold as Sweden’s double European under-20 champion Maja Åskag jumped 6.73m (0.9) for silver and Tessy Ebosele of Spain took bronze with 6.63m (0.2).

Larissa Iapichino (Getty)

Elsewhere the host nation received a hat-trick of titles in the course of the week with Juho Alasaari within the males’s pole vault, Silja Kosonen within the girls’s hammer and Saga Vanninen within the heptathlon.

READ MORE: Success for Yemi Mary John and Keely Hodgkinson at 400m

The ultimate evening in Espoo additionally noticed Greek javelin thrower Elina Tzengko full a hat-trick of European titles as she threw 60.73m to win under-23 gold to go together with the senior title she received in Munich final yr and the under-20 gold she took in Tallinn in 2021.

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