Muller British Champs (Friday): Megan solo run lands Euro Juniors place

Friday 25th June 2021

Results in Manchester

Megan Keith pulled off a magnificent win in Manchester to clinch her selection for the European Juniors next month.

The Inverness Harriers athlete led from start to finish in the U20 Women’s 3000m to book automatic selection by British Athletics and will now represent GB and NI in Estonia.

Megan was just inside 9:30 with a run of 9:29.66 on a cold and breezy night at the Manchester Regional Arena – with only the race winner guaranteed selection.

‘I’ve been to the Euro Cross with GB and NI in cross country so it is great to achieve success now on the track, as well,’ she said.

Two Scottish athletes, Duncan Robinson of Giffnock North AC and Jack Patton of Kilbarchan AAC went close to making it a double in the U20 Men’s 3000 showdown.

In the end, Robinson finished second in 8:23.72 and Patton was fifth in 8:24.13 – although both are still in the selection mix for Estonia.

Photos on Facebook (by Getty Images via British Athletics)

Josh Kerr cruised to victory in his heat (photo by Getty Images via British Athletics)

Three Scottish men and four Scottish women will contest the 1500m finals at the Muller British Champs.

Jake Wightman and Josh Kerr won their heats in comfortably fashion and they will be joined tomorrow by Ben Potrykus after he took fourth in the final heat to land one of the three additional slots.

Jake won in 3:45.8 and Josh in 3:44.46 as Ben ensured a third Scot will contest that final with a good run for fourth in the last heat in 3:46.07.

Joe Ewing (3:50.25) and Kane Elliott (3:51.15) were each fifth in their races but just missed out on the three additional places, one of those taken up by Potrykus. James Donald was seventh in heat four in 3:57.09. Central AC’s Ben MacMillan was 10th in heat two.

‘I don’t think you can discount anyone,’ said Jake, ahead of a big final showdown.

‘Josh is definitely the man in form but so am I so it should be a great race. Tonight was all about getting through. Saturday is the race that matters.’

Erin Wallace followed in Katie Snowdon in the first Women’s 1500m heat (photo by Getty Images via British Athletics)

It was a similar outcome in the women’s division as Erin Wallace made sure of her place with a solid performance for second place behind Katie Snowdon in 4:27.31 in the first of two heats.

Kathyrn Gillespie, the Central AC athlete who has been studying in the United States for a number of years, did a lot of hard work in heat two and was rewarded with fourth place in 4:20.04.

Just ahead of Kathyrn, Jenny Selman was safe in third (as the top four went through) with the Fife AC athlete clocking 4:19.58.

Selman’s club-mate, Steph Pennycook, joined the aforementioned trio via seventh place in the faster, second heat with a run of 4:21.77.

Nicole Yeargin took the win in heat one of the Women’s 400m in 53.03 and Zoey Clark followed that up with a strong run for second in heat two in 52.25 – from lane eight – to also make the final.

Zoey spoke to us afterwards and can’t wait to test herself in what is expected to be a really competitive final (see video above).

Adam Thomas and Alyson Bell are through to 100m semi-finals, too, with good performances in heats that were run into a strong headwind.

Howard Bell finished the day in seventh place in the decathlon after tallying 3490 points in his five events.

Krishawn Aiken was fourth in his 400m heat with 48.79 while Mhairi Patience came up with a Season’s Best run in the 400m hurdles at 60.41.

Alyson Bell took third place in her 100m heats at the Muller British Champs (photo by Getty Images via British Athletics)

Tags: Manchester, Muller British Champs