GB duo top respective continental under-23 rankings ahead of the European Under-23 Championships in Tallinn

Great Britain’s Nick Miller and Seren Bundy-Davies are among the European under-23 rankings leaders in action in Tallinn, Estonia, over the next few days as the European Under-23 Championships takes place from July 9-12.

The event has proved to be a launch pad for some of the biggest names in the sport, with Carolina Kluft, Robert Harting and Yelena Isinbayeva among those to have used it as a springboard to greatness. British athletes such as Chris Thompson, Jade Johnson, Becky Lyne and Allison Curbishley are also among the event’s roll of honour.

Bundy-Davies, who enjoyed a breakthrough to take 400m bronze in the European Indoor Championships last winter, heads the rankings after her 51.72 clocked last month, while Miller holds the same position in the hammer rankings following his 76.97m from earlier this year, a mark which puts him fourth on the UK senior all-time list.

Other British leading medal hopes are sprint hurdlers David Omoregie, David King and Khai Riley-La Borde, ranked second to fourth respectively on the European under-23 rankings for the year behind France’s world and European junior champion Wilhem Belocian.

“We’ve just got to stay focussed, execute our races and get through to the final,” commented Omoregie. “We’ve just got to keep it clean; we’re all definitely capable of making the final and then once we get there we can just give it everything.”

Rhona Auckland and Alice Wright will also be targeting podium places as they rank second and third in the 10,000m.

GB team leader Alison Wyeth said: “British Athletics is in the fortunate position that several of the under-23 athletes are focusing on the World Championships in Beijing this summer as part of the senior team, and were therefore unavailable for selection.

“Despite this, the team is still a very strong line-up, with each athlete selected because of their potential to medal, or achieve at least a top-five placing in Tallinn.”

Among other ones to watch are Italy’s Alessia Trost and Russia’s Mariya Kuchina who go head-to-head in the high jump, Czech Republic’s Anezka Drahotova who is set to contest both the 20km walk and 5000m, Turkey’s Ali Kaya in the 5000m and 10,000m and Serbia’s Amela Terzic in the 800m and 1500m.

Full entry lists can be found here, while the event timetable is here. Action gets underway at 10am local time (8am UK) on Thursday (July 9).

The GB team for Tallinn can be found listed here.

European Under-23 Championships action will be streamed live on the European Athletics website. See european-athletics.org

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