Just 17, Phoebe Gill storms into the British Olympic team

Youngster wins 800m title in Manchester as sprinters Dina Asher-Smith and Amber Anning clock championship records

With a performance belying her years, teenage middle-distance talent Phoebe Gill ran away from Jemma Reekie to win the UK 800m title in Manchester on Sunday (June 29).

At 17 years and two months old, she becomes youngest British athlete to make an Olympics since 400m runner Linsey MacDonald in 1980.

When the realisation she is going to the Olympics kicked in, her head was spinning and full of emotion. On Monday she will be back down to earth, though, as she goes to do some work experience at her old primary school.

The young St Albans athlete didn’t intend to lead but found herself at the front as she went through the bell in 59.78 with Reekie on her shoulder.

Coming into the home straight Reekie was poised to strike but Gill eased away to win in 1:58.66 as Reekie also earned automatic selection for Paris in 1:59.28. In third, Erin Wallace clocked 2:00.88.

Afterwards a sporting Reekie embraced Gill. “Today was all about qualifying for the Olympics,” said the Scottish athlete.

Gill said: “It’s a whirlwind. I still feel like I’m in a dream. I can’t think of another way to describe it. It’s just unbelievable that this is happening.

“It’s crazy because these are all my idols that I’ve looked up to and watched their races for so long. To think that I’ve been racing with them. It’s just such an achievement for myself.”

Gill has a big decision to make, too. She has been picked for next month’s European Under-18 Championships in Slovakia – and the World Under-20 Championships in Peru in August are also an option – but will she now go to it given the proximity to the Olympics? “I’ll have to speak to my coach about it,” she said.

Gill’s talent has been clear for some time but in Belfast in early May she ran a European under-18 record of 1:57.86. That performance marked her out as a potential member of the Olympic team and on Sunday she surpassed expectations by winning the trial.

Keely Hodgkinson will complete the 800m team in Paris and here in Manchester she raced the 400m instead. A match-up with Gill would have been thrilling but that clash can wait for now.

Hodgkinson’s one-lap final didn’t go brilliantly, though. Drawn on the tight inside lane she finished seventh in 52.22 as victory went to Amber Anning in a championship record of 50.47.

Laviai Nielsen was runner-up in 50.92…