SEREN BUNDY-DAVIES, a new name in British athletics, belied her lack of experience to win a bronze medal in her first major championships in Prague. It was Britain’s fourth medal of the European indoor championships and confirmed the emergence of a new generation of British athletes who have old heads on young shoulders.
On the opening day, Lucy Hatton, 20, took silver in the 60m hurdles and Bundy-Davies held her nerve to emerge from a dramatic finale to the 400m with a medal. Next week, 20-year-old Bundy-Davies from Cardiff, whose first name means “star” in Welsh, will return to her studies in medical science at the University of Manchester. Having run a personal best time of 51.72sec at a meeting in Vienna earlier in the winter, Bundy-Davies assumed the unenviable role of being one of the pre-championships favourites. That she has managed to shoulder that expectation so creditably says much for her equable temperament and the calm tuition of her coach, Stephen Ball.
Another eye-catching run from one of the junior members of the GB squad came from Scot Guy Learmonth, 22, who is making his senior debut and ran a race of flair and tactical control to win his semi-final of the 800m. Learmonth’s maturity in qualifying for today’s final showed his potential.
“I was quite aware where everyone was on the track,” he said. “I had to run outside lane one a little bit to force them to run wide, but I’m happy with how I ran and happy to be in the final.”
Learmonth’s Scottish teammate, Laura Muir, in contrast had nothing left when the leaders piled on the pressure in the final two laps of the 3,000m. Unable to respond to the turn of foot of the two leaders, Muir tried valiantly to close the gap on the tiring Dutch girl, Maureen Koster, down the home straight but could not quite claim a bronze.
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Lee Emanuel, 30, won Britain’s second medal of the day in Prague, securing silver in the men’s 3,000m. He continued his good form, setting a personal best 7min 44.48sec to finish behind Turkey’s Ali Kaya, who broke the championship record by crossing the line in 7min 38.42sec.“I gave it everything I had but he was just too good for me,” Emanuel said.
There is always drama when Jenny Meadows takes to the track but, for once, luck turned her way. Having been run out of the qualification places in the final strides by the late-charging Anastasiya Bazdyreva, Meadows was distraught, but the replay showed that the Russian had stepped off the track. Disqualification seemed inevitable once the GB team had lodged an appeal and the Russian, who had finished second, was kicked out.
Before the championships, Meadows estimated that she had lost around £100,000 in potential prize money and sponsorship and been deprived of at least five medals at major championships by Russian athletes who have subsequently been banned for doping. Her silver at the 2011 European indoors in Paris was upgraded to gold after the victor, Yevgeniya Zinurova, joined Russia’s long list of drug cheats. This is another redressing of the balance and the presence of another Russian in the field for the 800m final today will surely spur her on. Having a bad cold all week, she did not sound upbeat about the prospect of another hard race today.
“She [Bazdyreva] definitely did [step off the track],” said Meadows before the final verdict. “If a final place was up for grabs, I’d take it, but I’m not sure I could do better. I’ve been sick all week and I was a sitting target. Ten people could have passed me. I was hanging for dear death.”
With good medal chances in both men’s and women’s sprints and a strong tradition of success in the relays, the GB team should round off these championships in style today. Richard Kilty, the world indoor champion, looked particularly sharp in winning his heat and, shortly after, his young teammate, Chijindu Ujah, another of GB’s rising sprint stars, equalled Kilty’s time of 6.57sec to qualify for the semi-finals. Dina Asher-Smith, the world junior 100m champion, clocked a personal best 7.10 sec in qualifying for this afternoon’s semi-finals and there were impressive wins in the heats of the 1500m for Charlie Grice and Chris O’Hare.