OKOYE AND RELAY TOP EIGHT ON ACTION-PACKED OPENING NIGHT AT EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS

OKOYE AND RELAY TOP EIGHT ON ACTION-PACKED OPENING NIGHT AT EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIPS

The Great Britain and Northern Ireland team got off to a strong start on a busy first evening at the European Athletics Championships in Rome. The mixed 4x400m relay team defied their experience to finish fifth, with Lawrence Okoye (coach: Zane Duquemin, club: Croydon) placing eighth in the men’s discus final.

The quartet of Charlie Carvell (Stewart Marshall, Telford AC), Hannah Kelly (Les Hall, Bolton), Lewis Davey (Trevor Painter, Newham & Essex Beagles), and Emily Newnham (Nick Dakin, Shaftesbury Barnet) – leg one and anchor both making their major senior British debut – finished fifth in 3:13.97 minutes.

Okoye, meanwhile, a European bronze medallist two years ago, was a picture of consistency in the men’s discus final, held just a matter of hours after qualification, as he placed eighth with a best of 63.48m thrown with his last attempt.

The first day of the heptathlon concluded with the shot put and the 200m, with Johnson-Thompson unfortunately withdrawing after the former after developing a small niggle to her right leg. Jade O’Dowda (John Lane, Newham & Essex Beagles) remained, however, and is in ninth place with 3655 points after two solid efforts in the evening session.

The women’s 5000m final ended the opening night with Izzy Fry (Sonia McGeorge, Newbury) the first home in ninth in a two-second personal best while Hannah Nuttall (Helen Clitheroe, Charnwood) was tenth and Amy-Eloise Neale (Rob Denmark, Wakefield) was 19th.

Elsewhere, Scott Lincoln (Paul Wilson, City of York) and Morgan Lake (Robbie Grabarz, Windsor Slough Eton & Hounslow) advanced to the men’s shot put and women’s high jump finals, respectively, and CJ Ujah (Steve Fudge, Enfield & Haringey) progressed to the men’s 100m semi-finals.

In the first track final involving the British team in Rome, two-time European junior champion Carvell had the honor of leading the mixed 4x400m relay team. He ran a very strong opening leg to hand over to Kelly in fourth place.

She carried on Carvell’s strong opener and was fifth at the cut-in. She then made up ground on the home straight before handing over to Davey. He settled into sixth after the exchange and again tried to make up places before the final handover.

Newnham was given the responsibility of guiding the British mixed 4x400m team home. Having once been sixth, she dug deep to ensure the British team finished in fifth place in a time of…