The Englishmen and women put in some incredible displays as part of the Great British team that travelled to Glasgow and Berlin to compete in the 2018 European Championships. Team England athletes won a resounding 46 of Great Britain’s 66 medals - in Commonwealth sports - across the 11-day competition.
The weekend’s action saw Great Britain remain and finish in second place in the medal table behind Russia, despite boasting eight more medals, and it was a great couple of days of action for Team England athletes who led the way tremendously.
Taking place over the weekend as the Championships drew to a close, the men’s gymnastics team narrowly missed out on gold in the team final on Saturday. However, through qualification for the individual finals, Dom Cunningham’s scintillating floor routine secured his place as European Champion, while Courtney Tulloch took bronze in the rings.
This year’s European Championships, held in Glasgow with the Athletics events hosted in Berlin, saw a new multi-sport competition lay-out.
In the athletics, Matthew Hudson-Smith kicked off a successful weekend in Berlin for those who competed for Team England at the Commonwealth Games in April. Hudson-Smith took 400m gold in comfortable fashion as he emerged away from the pack on the final bend to finish with a time of 44.78 seconds. Katarina Johnson-Thompson claimed silver in the heptathlon while Meghan Beesley came third and walked away with the bronze medal in the 400m hurdles.
On Saturday, Britain’s fastest woman Dina Asher-Smith picked up her second gold medal of the competition in emphatic fashion, as she powered to a 200m triumph with a blistering time of 21.89 seconds. Her 200m time was enough to beat reigning world champion Dafne Schippers and was also the quickest time recorded by a woman in the event this year.
Asher-Smith secured her third gold of the tournament in the 4x100m women’s relay, alongside fellow countrywomen Bianca Williams, Imani-Lara Lansiquot and Asha Philip. The 22-year-old ran a phenomenal last leg as she battled back from 4th position to take gold and become the first woman since 1990 to win three European sprint titles at one championships.
The men’s relay team, consisting of Zharnel Hughes, CJ Ujah,Adam Gemili and Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, recreated the women’s team’s success with victory of their own in the last event of the championships, a fitting way to bow out of a strong competition for all Great British athletes.