Phoebe Gill has set a European U18 800m document of 1:57.86 on the Belfast Irish Milers Meet (Might 11).
The 17-year-old received the race, towards the likes of Erin Wallace and Abigail Ives, by over two seconds and largely ran the second lap on her personal.
Gill has now smashed the European U18 mark of 1:59.65, set by East Germany’s Marion Geissler-Hübner in 1979.
It additionally signifies that Gill is now the second quickest U18 feminine athlete over the gap in historical past. Solely China’s Wang Yuan, who ran 1:57.18 in 1993, has gone faster.
In going nicely underneath the Olympic qualification commonplace of 1:59.30, Gill has now put herself in rivalry to symbolize Staff GB at Paris 2024. If the 17-year-old was to qualify then she’d be following within the footsteps of considered one of her idols Keely Hodgkinson, who received Olympic 800m silver as a youngster on the Tokyo Video games.
Hodgkinson, the nationwide 800m record-holder with 1:55.19, is now the one British athlete who has gone faster than Gill at U20 stage. Gill now joins Hodgkinson within the high 10 on the senior UK all-time checklist, leaping from sixty fifth to eighth.
“I really like watching her [Hodgkinson] and I’ve seen numerous her races,” Gill advised AW, in an interview finally yr’s English Colleges Championships. “Mentally she’s simply an incredible athlete and performing like she has achieved in these large races proves it.”
The St. Albans primarily based athlete, who has been coached and guided by Deborah Steer because the age of six, can be an enormous fan of Kelly Holmes and has beforehand said that she “hopes to evolve into an identical type of athlete”.
Gill, a Youth Commonwealth Video games 800m champion, first had a swimming background earlier than operating, one thing she states has helped her energy. Cross nation in school was her first introduction into the game earlier than she transitioned to the observe and located house with the center distances.
She additionally holds the UK U17 1500m document of 4:11.96 – her 1500m private greatest is now 4:05.87 – and earlier on this season took over three seconds off her indoor 400m private greatest with 54.82, highlighting the velocity work in coaching.
Gill’s dream is to compete at each the Olympics and World Championships and that will find yourself turning into actuality.
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