St Mary’s Athletes make Strong Start to European Championships

Endurance Performance and Coaching Centre (EPACC) athletes and alumni of St Mary’s University, Twickenham have made a strong start to the inaugural multi-sport European Championships.

St Mary’s, who has 18 representatives at the championships in Glasgow and Berlin, has already seen success in the Rowing with alumnae Karen Bennett and Matilda Horn picking up Silver in the Women’s Eights on home waters in Strathclyde County Park.

In Berlin, EPACC athlete Andy Vernon impressed in the Men’s 10,000m Final as he finished fifth, and the fastest Brit, in a time of 28:16.90 – just eight seconds slower than his time when he won Silver in the 2014 European Athletics Championships in Zurich. St Mary’s also had representation in the final from Chris Thompson, the second fastest British athlete in 11^th, and Stephen Scullion, who finished 23^rd.

St Mary’s has three medal hopes on Friday evening after EPACC athletes Jake Wightman and Charlie Grice eased through their Men’s 1500m heats to progress through to the final. Their times of 30:40.73 and 3:40.80 made them two of the three fastest qualifiers in the field.

Adelle Tracey is also into a final after she impressed in her Women’s 800m Semi-Final heat by running a Personal Best (PB) in a time of 1:59.86 – her first-ever sub 2:00 performance.

Alumna Jade Lally will be going for Gold on Saturday evening after she progressed through the Women’s Discus qualifiers while Elliot Giles and Daniel Rowden are into the Men’s 800m Semi-Finals after getting through their heats on Thursday morning.

Director of Sport at St Mary’s Andrew Reid-Smith said, "It was a classy display from Adelle to run in a European Champs semi-final and go sub two minutes for the first time.

"She’s consistently producing positive performances and will take this confidence into her final. With Charlie and Jake’s automatic qualification for the 1500m final, we are looking forward to Friday and watching all of them run well in their respective races."