European Indoor Championships – Torun, Poland 4-7 March
Huge congratulations to Jamie Webb and James Williams, who both came away with bronze medals at the European Indoor Championships in Torun.
James Williams was making his first appearance for GB having never represented GB at junior level and had to get time off from his teaching job to compete.
James first qualifying race in the 400m came on Friday morning, where he came from the middle of the pack to finish second and qualify for the semi final later that evening.
However on Friday evening, James got drawn in a loaded heat which was significantly faster than the other two semi finals. James finished fifth in his semi final, but both times were sub 47s, which were his second and third fastest times ever.
Sunday evening saw the 4x400m relay as the penultimate event of the meeting and on times, GB had an outside chance of a medal. The Polish team then withdrew due to a Covid issue, which improved the chances of a medal.
James was on third leg and ran a stormed to record the fastest split of the team(46.09) and move them into a medal position.
GB finished in 3rd place and won their first medal in this event since 2013.
Jamie Webb came into the event having picked up a silver in Glasgow 2 years ago and with the fastest time this year of all the athletes competing.
Jamie’s first race on Friday evening saw him finish second in his heat for comfortable qualifying. Saturday’s semi final however was ran really hard and Jamie came in second in a sub 1:46 time, far quicker than the other semi finals.
Sunday’s final was stacked with experienced athletes like Kszczot, Bosse and Tuka plus the up and coming Poles.
Despite a very hard semi final. Jamie went straight to the front. Several times, the other athletes tried to go past, but Jamie resisted and held on to the bell.
Unfortunately Jamie was unable to hang on and was out kicked by two of the Polish athletes, but finished a fine third.
Congratulations to both James and Jamie on their medals this weekend.
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