Athletics roundup: Britain in Amsterdam

With this summers Olympic Games in Rio, Brazil, slowly getting closer, The Sports Lowdown looks at how the Brits have been getting on in the recent athletics championships in Amsterdam.

 

Martin Rooney was one Brit who was in sensational form as the 400m runner retained his title. The 29 year old, who also won gold in Zurich in 2014, had a strong run to finish ahead of Czech, Pavel Maslak.

Rooney has an outside chance of heading to Rio given his recent displays, but failed to secure an automatic place after finishing outside the top two at the British Championship last month.

“It is the first time I have had chance to defend a title so I am very proud to have won,” Rooney said.

“The two boys who finished ahead of me [at the British Championships] had a fantastic championships. They deserve their places in the team.

“As much as I could do today was to win and hopefully I will get the nod. I’m sure I have done enough.

“I am double European champion. It would be very interesting not to get picked.”

Jazmin Sawyers, which has already qualified for Rio after a strong performance at the British Championship, won silver in Amsterdam in the long jump, finishing just behind Serbian, Ivana Spanovic.

Danny Talbot has upgraded to 200m bronze after the Dutch runner, Churandy Martina, was disqualified for lane violation. Martina, who was a home favourite, finished above the Brit by five hundredths of a second, with Spain’s Bruno Hortelano first and Ramil Guliyev from Turkey in second.

Anyika Onuora finished third in the women’s 400m, earning bronze, finishing just ahead of fellow Brit, Christine Ohuruogu. But, like Rooney in the men’s, Onuora is unsure whether or not she’ll be heading to Rio with the rest of Team GB.

Asha Philip came fourth in the women’s 100m, with home favourite, Dafne Schippers, winning in a time of 10.90. Fellow Brit, Desiree Henry, failed to finish the race and was stretchered off after what appeared to be an abdominal pain.

Dewi Griffiths missed out on the Olympic qualifying standard time of 28 minutes in the men’s 10,000m, but at a new personal best of 28m;28.55secs to finish fourth.

Former European Champion, Rhys Williams, finished fifth in the men’s 400m hurdles, behind eventual winner, Yasmani Copello, and Sergio Fernandez and Kariem Hussein.