GB’s 4x100m relay performance at the European Athletics Championships on Tuesday went from disastrous to divine, with the men finishing last in their warm-up and the women setting the fastest time in Europe this year.
All eyes will be on the men’s team as this is the first time CJ Ujah and Richard Kilty have run together since the former’s positive drug test led to the team’s silver medal finish at the Tokyo Olympics. In the aftermath, Kilty promised to never forgive his “hasty and reckless” team-mates for snatching his medal or spending £10 on Amazon for an amino acid supplement that turned out to be contaminated instead of Amino acid supplements on the Informed Sport list.
However, the pair reunited in Team GB, which has won gold at every European Championship since 2014. A horrific final transition between Kilty and Rommell Glave resulted in the team finishing eighth in 39.60.
“It’s terrible, I don’t know what’s going on,” Kilty said. “We shouldn’t have been that slow. We need to look back on the film, but on paper that team was a very, very fast team, but something obviously went wrong. It’s very disappointing, Because we want to come here and win and we can win.
“It’s a new team and we’re trying something out for the Olympics. But we’re very disappointed with it, it’s all very vague.
However, there was better news from the GB women’s team, who won their heats in leg three with the help of individual gold medalist Dina Asher-Smith by a margin of 42.25, while Desiree Henry Finished the game with a bang after regaining fitness. “When I saw the time, I couldn’t believe it, it was really cool,” Asher-Smith said.
Defending European 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson led from tape to gun, heading into Wednesday’s 800m final with a fastest time of 1 minute 58.07 seconds, despite saying she didn’t like the 11am The beginning of the point.
“It’s too early for me, less than 24 hours since the last game,” she said. “I felt good – I guess I wanted to settle into my rhythm a little more today. A couple of the girls said thank you afterwards because they had top times!
However, Britain’s other two representatives were less than delighted, with Erin Wallace and Alex Bell failing to qualify.
