Robbie Fitzgibbon (Brighton Phoenix) had a brilliant run in a tactical 1500 metre final at the European Junior Championships at Eskilstuna in Sweden.
Like so many Championship finals the accent was very much on medals rather than times. The main body of the field were bunched together throughout the race and a desperate final two hundred metres did little to spread them out.
Just over one second separated the British winner Josh Kerr (Edinburgh) who clocked 3:49.62s and the Phoenix runner who was placed sixth in 3:50.67s.
Club mate Spencer Thomas was unlucky in his semi-final of the 800 metres. Although he had the eighth fastest time when finishing third in 1:51.64s in his heat he did not make it to the final.
Qualification decreed that the first two in the three semi-final heats progressed to the final plus the two fastest losers. The second athlete in the first heat went through although he was actually slower than Thomas, who had finished third in his heat.
Thousands of miles away in Colombia Toby Harries (Phoenix) was in blazing form in the 200 metres winning his heat in 21.12sec, which was not only a Sussex U17 record but it also bettered Wade Bennett-Jackson’s U20 record end even the Sussex Senior record, also credited to Bennett-Jackson at 21.17s back in 2005 when he was still an U20 performer.
Not satisfied with that run Harries ran even faster in the semi-final when winning in 21.01sec.
Harries is due to run in Sunday’s final at 9.45 pm BST where he will be the sixth fastest in the line-up.
Back in Sweden Grace Baker from Hastings should be lining up for the 5000m women’s race at 4.55 BST.