Great Britain struck triple gold at the Sogutlu Athletics track in Trabzon on Wednesday, as they maintained second spot in the medal table at the European Youth Olympic Festival in Turkey.
Victories in the boys long jump, boys 400 metres and girls 1500 metres from Elliot Safo (Kenley), Clovis Asong (Manchester) and Sophie Riches (Rayleigh) were added to by a bronze from James Lamswood (Kirkella) which took GB’s medals tally to 17.
Safo broke his personal best twice on his way to long jump glory.
Asong broke the long-standing competition record for the 400 metres on Monday, cruising to a comfortable victory in the heats and then repeating the feat in the final, winning by around two seconds and narrowly missing out on breaking the record again.
“I am really pleased to have ended up with the gold and that is what I came here to do so it is job well done from that point of view,” he said.
“But I am still a bit disappointed with my final time because after running a new personal best in the heat I wanted to do the same in the final.
“But the most important thing is that I ended up with the gold at the end of the day.
“To call myself one of the fastest in Europe over 400m is amazing but I will train even faster and try and get faster.”
Sophie Riches’ win in the 1500 metres, securing an easy victory, while James Lamswood made a late surge to secure bronze from a Slovenian athlete in the final 20 meters.
In other events, Danielle Opara (Reading) qualified for the shot put final and Jack Phipps (Leatherhead) set a new personal best of 4.70 metres to automatically qualify for the final.
Dina Asher-Smith (Orpington) qualified for the 200 metres semi final along with Thomas Holligan (Edinburgh) who clocked a personal best.
Carys Mansfield (Kidwelly) finished 16th in the javelin, while Rachel Dickens (Westerham) finished sixth in the 400 metres.
Aiden Moffat (Perth) battled superbly to come within a whisker of a Judo bronze medal, but was narrowly beaten in his final clash in the -60kg class at the Of Sports Hall near Trabzon, Turkey.
“Before I came out here I just wanted to win a fight, so a bronze is a great performance,” he said. “It’s so annoying to get to within reaching distance of a medal, so I just want to push myself on in training and see if I can get myself an international medal – that would be amazing.”
In the -66kg class, Colin MacDonald reached the quarter finals before missing out. He won two fights, including one against Poland’s Tomasz Maciej Dlugosz whom he threw after just 16 seconds for an ippon victory.
But there was disappointment for Lucy Renshall (St Helens) who lost in the second round to a Turkish opponent. She won her first repechage clash with an ippon hold in golden score, but lost on waza-ari in the next round.
After a stunning silver medal from the GB boys yesterday Abigail Caig (Liverpool), Gabrielle Jupp (Borehamwood) and Angel Romaeo (Cardiff) were hoping to follow in their footsteps as they competed at the Yomra Cimnastik Salonu in the girls’ artistic team final.
All three girls put in strong performances but a few mistakes on their final apparatus, the beam, placed them seventh.
Caig said: “Today was exciting, a really good experience. It was all going really well until my last apparatus, the beam, I didn’t land my dismount so I am bit a disappointed with that.
“Today the vault was my strongest apparatus and I got through to Friday’s final so I am really excited with that.
“I am also through to the all-around final tomorrow. The Russians and Romanians will be my strongest competition but I think that if I perform well I could have a chance.
Jupp and Caig now compete in the all-round final tomorrow and the beam and vault respectively on Friday in the individual finals.
Over on the roads of Trabzon, Team GB battled to sixth in the cycling criterium despite two of their riders crashing during the heats.
Jacob Scott (Huddersfield) got back on his bike and qualified for the final where he helped Tao Geoghegan Hart (London) take sixth spot. Chris Lawless also got back on his bike after the crash, but didn’t make it into the final and raced instead in the B final.
Team GB in Action: 28th July
Athletics - Söǧütlü Track and Field Stadium Boys Javelin - Huw Bevan Boys Hammer Final - Michael Painter Girls Shot Put Final– Danielle Opara Boys 400m Hurdles final – Jacob Paul Girls 200m Semi Final - Dina Asher-Smith Boys 200m Semi Final - Thomas Holligan Boys 4x100m Relay Final - Leon Reid, Thomas Holligan, Clovis Mbaken, James Taylor
Cycling - Rize Highway Boys Road Race 70.8km - Tao Geoghegan Hart, Christopher Lawless, Jacob Scott Gymnastics - Yomra Cimnastik Salonu Boys Artistic Gymnastics All Around final - Frank Baines, Courtney Tulloch Girls Artistic Gymnastics All Around final - Gabrielle Jupp, Abigail Caig Judo - Girls – Of Sports Centre Girls -63Kg - Kate-Jemima Yeats-Brown Girls -70Kg - Priscab Awiti-Alcaraz Boys -73Kg - Max Murphy Boys - 81Kg - Liam Donkin
Swimming - Mehmet Akif Ersoy Swimming Complex Girls 50m Freestyle – Harriet Cooper Boys 1500m Freestyle – Joel Knight Girls 400m Medley – Ellena Jones Boys 200m Butterfly – Matthew Johnson Girls 100m Backstroke – Harriet Cooper Boys 100m Breastroke – Harry Webster Girls 200m Freestyle – Siwan Howell Thomas Boys 50m Freestyle – Oliver Leonard