It was a night to remember for the British Athletics team as Richard Kilty (coach: Michael Khmel) retained his 60m title and Laura Muir (Andy Young) won her first ever senior medal over 1500m to end day two of the European Indoor Championships in Belgrade, Serbia.

After a nervy start to the final which saw compatriot Andrew Robertson (Sam Robertson) disqualified for a false start, Kilty kept his nerve to race away from the field in 6.54, the fastest run by a European this year and a first class showing under intense pressure.

The two-time European Indoor champion said: “After the semi-final I felt comfortable, but everyone was running quick times and I know some of the British guys and the Slovakian guy [Volko, silver medallist] can pull big performances out the bag, and I know that can happen – when I did it in 2014 [World Indoor Championships] no-one expected it, so you can never enter thinking ‘no one can win this’.

“I’ve never defended a title before, but I pulled out my phone and looked at a picture of little Richard and thought to myself ‘whatever happens here, when I go home on Monday he’s going to be smiling’, and that just made me think ‘it’s just another competition’ and it completely took my nerves away.”

Theo Etienne (Ryan Freckleton) did much to impress on his senior team debut, with the 20-year-old coming home in 6.67 for fifth in the final.

For newly crowned European Indoor 1500m champion Muir, a typically attacking showing saw her leave the field in her wake as she sprinted away to the line, smashing both the championship record and Dame Kelly Holmes’ 14 year-old British record (4:02.66) as she clocked 4:02.39 for gold.

Of her first senior medal – a gold one at that – Muir said: “To get that medal – I’m so happy. I was actually quite relaxed because I knew what I had to do and I knew that I was stronger than a lot of the girls – I knew that if I got out pretty early then I’d be fine. I didn’t expect someone to be on my shoulder with 300m to go, but I just put the welly in and managed to come away with the win.”

After navigating her earlier round in magnificent style to progress to the final, Muir’s compatriot Sarah McDonald (Bud Baldaro) finished sixth in 4:13.67, with the Birchfield Harrier leaving everything out on the track.

Ashley Bryant (Aston Moore) continued the strong form he showed in this morning’s session as he and Liam Ramsay (Mike Corden) continued in the Heptathlon, beginning with the Shot Put.

It took until Bryant’s third and final throw for him to bring his best, with 14.57m, eight centimetres off his personal best, scoring 763 points to keep him in second beyond Kevin Mayer of France. For Ramsay, a first round throw and season’s best of 13.62m saw him score 705 points to remain 14th in standings.

When it came to the High Jump both athletes’ series brought strong results, with Bryant equalling his indoor personal best of 1.98m at the third attempt, to claim 785 points. Ramsay cleared 2.04m at the first attempt for 840 points. At the end of day one Bryant sits fourth in the standings, with Ramsay in 14th.

Reflecting on his opening day, Bryant said: “I think the exciting thing for me is that I’m coming to championships and producing solid performances which are way better than last year’s – I’m setting PBs this year, and that’s the most exciting thing overall, so I’m excited for both tomorrow and the summer.”

On her first appearance as a British Athletics senior, Laviai Nielsen (Frank Adams) came agonisingly close to bronze in the women’s 400m. After taking the bell in a strong position, the Enfield & Haringey athlete looked to have done enough to make the podium, only for Poland’s Justyna Swiety to come past her with just five meters to go.

“I never thought I'd be disappointed with 4th here, but it was so close” she said. “It went by in such a flash. I just wanted to go out and attack it – I'm not sure what we went through 200m in – but it felt quite quick. It slowed after the break and I just wanted to pass Hejnova in 4th then kick round the bend which I feel like I did. But with 20m to go it just wasn't in my legs.”

Shelayna Oskan-Clarke (Jon Bigg) dug in deep to come through her 800m semi-final superbly, with a combination of her closing speed and evident determination seeing her through to tomorrow evening’s final where the 27-year-old will look to be in the mix for her first senior medal.

In the men’s equivalent, Kyle Langford (George Harrison) was edged out of a qualifying spot as he struggled to produce the closing speed which has become a regular feature of his racing style. Having flitted between the top three positions over the first 600m, he was overtaken on the back straight on the final lap and couldn’t bridge the gap before the line came.

In the men’s 1500m final, Tom Lancashire’s (Steve Cram) was just run out of the race after being in the mix for much of it, with Poland’s Marcin Lewandowski coming through the field strongly to lead a swift finish, with Lancashire taking fifth place in 3:46.57.

After sailing over 1.85m at the first time of asking in the High Jump final, unfortunately three failures at 1.89m brought an end to Morgan Lake’s (Fuzz Caan) hopes of winning her first senior medal.

BELGRADE 2017: DAY TWO – MORNING SESSION

British Athletics team captain Ashley Bryant (coach: Aston Moore) put together two strong performances to move into second place in the men’s Heptathlon, ahead of further competition later today and tomorrow.

Bryant opened with a personal best of 7.06 over 60m for 861 points, while fellow multi-eventer Liam Ramsay (Mike Corden) clocked 7.12 for 840 points in the second of the two heats.

Less than half an hour later the pair took to the infield for the Long Jump, Bryant’s best of 7.66m – also the furthest distance from the heptathlon group – saw him move into second place overall, with Ramsay finishing the morning in 14th after jumping 6.81m.  Both will return for the Shot Put and High Jump later this evening.

Defending champion Richard Kilty (Michael Khmel) began the defence of his 60m European Indoor title in solid fashion, with 6.61 enough to see him take the victory in his heat.

On safe passage to this evening’s semi-finals, Kilty said: “It was a slow start, but I put my foot on the gas for 20m and then eased off – there’s definitely at least another tenth I can take off. With the adrenaline my reactions will get quicker; now I’ll relax before later, but I loved it out there.”

Senior debutant Theo Etienne (Ryan Freckleton) joins Kilty in the semi-finals after a strong start and an assured finish took him to the win in 6.62.

Post-race he commented: “I’m as confident as I ever have been, but I just have to treat the rounds like any other race – we’re all here for a reason, and I just want to perform and show everyone that I deserve to be here. Obviously the semi-final this evening will be a lot harder, so I’m going to keep my head down and rest up a little before then.”

Andrew Robertson (Sam Robertson) ensured it was three wins from three heats for the British male sprinters as a comfortable 6.66 saw him get the job done in the fourth and final heat.

“I didn’t get out well at all! At the finish I slowed it down a little too, but I think I definitely missed about a tenth due to my start – I was left in the blocks big time.” he said.

“I’m really happy generally though; I know I’m good shape so I just had to nail that heat, and based on the starts yesterday I knew I had to be a bit careful. I always seem to run better when there are rounds put together in one day, so it’s onwards to the semi-finals now.”

Asha Philip (Steve Fudge) breezed through the last of the five 60m heats with minimal trouble in the women’s 60m, as a strong start out of the blocks allowed her to wind down slightly to post 7.25 for the victory ahead of tomorrow evening’s semi-finals.

She said: “”I saw the German girl [Burghardt] went full tilt in heat one, so I thought ‘ok, I don’t want to kill myself out there’, but obviously I knew I wanted to win the heat, so I just pushed on – I knew she [Lisa Mayer, German] was coming for me but I got out well. There are still things to work on – maybe I relaxed a little – but now it’s about trying to qualify for the final.”

In the women’s Long Jump, it took just one jump for Lorraine Ugen (Shawn Jackson) to secure her spot in tomorrow evening’s final, as the World Indoor bronze medallist sailed out to a season’s best of 6.80m in impressive fashion, with home favourite Ivana Spanovic going out to 7.03m directly afterwards to set up what promises to be a highly entertaining final.

For Jazmin Sawyers (Kelly Sotherton), a third round best of 6.54m was enough to see her join Ugen in the final after finishing as the seventh best jumper in the qualifying pool.

In the men’s High Jump, Robbie Grabarz (Fuzz Caan) and Allan Smith (Bryan Roy) safely secured spots in tomorrow’s final. Olympic medallist Grabarz sat the competition out until the bar was at 2.21m, first time clearances at both that height and 2.25m were sufficient to secure non-automatic qualification following a string of failures from the rest of the field at 2.28m.

Grabarz spoke afterwards, saying: “I made it hard work and took extra jumps I didn’t want to take, but I’m through to the final and I’m looking forward to tomorrow.

“I was totally in control until I messed one up at 2.28.  I was really concentrating hard early on, but it was 50 odd minutes before I took a jump – although I was expecting that given the amount of athletes – but I’m too experienced to use that as an excuse.  I’m through and now looking forward to tomorrow.”

Smith joins Grabarz in the final following an impressive series which saw him go clear at 2.16m, 2.21m and 2.25m at the first time of asking.

Ahead of the final he said: “I’m very pleased, it’s my first European final, so that’s progress.  That was probably the easiest 2.25m of my life."

Unfortunately it wasn’t to be for Chris Kandu (Fuzz Caan), as despite going agonisingly close at 2.28m and clearing 2.25m, the 21-year-old exited the competition following a tenth place finish in the qualifying round due to previous failed attempts.

UKA Athletics – News