A look ahead to the 2018 European Athletics Championships
Published:
Who are Great Britain’s best medal hopes?
The 2018 European Athletics Championships kicks off on 6th August and the event has gone through something of a revamp.
For the first time ever, aquatics, cycling, gymnastics, rowing, triathlon and mixed-gender Golf will now mesh with track and field events. And it will take place across two cities – athletics in Berlin, and the other sports in Glasgow.
But who are the biggest medal hopes from the team? The Coral News Team takes a look…
Sprinting
Zharnel Hughes, Dina Asher-Smith, Matthew Hudson-Smith all travel to Berlin as the fastest European athletes of the year so far.
Hughes set an incredible time of 9.91 seconds in a 100m sprint in Jamaica back in June. That put him joint-second behind Linford Christie in the all-time British rankings.
Asher-Smith will look to defend the 200m title she won in Amsterdam back in 2016, while Martyn Rooney can secure consecutive 400m crowns, too.
Long Jump
Lorraine Ugen will be in with a major chance of bringing home gold. The 26-year-old is currently the top-ranked athlete in the world in the women’s long jump.
Ugen has won gold in her last two events – the Commonwealth Games, and the Athletics World Cup in London.
However, one key absentee in the men’s event will be Greg Rutherford. The double Olympic medallist misses out through injury and is likely to retire from the sport at the end of the current season.
Elsewhere
Over in Glasgow, Britain will have a host of prospective medal chances in the other sports.
Olympic gold medallist Katie Archibald goes in track cycling’s Individual Pursuit. The 24-year-old Scot will be racing in front of her home crowd.
In the Triathlon, Jess Learmonth will look to defend her title and looks in good form. The 30-year-old returned from the Commonwealth Games with two silver medals.
Finally, in rowing, Olympic silver medallist Katherine Grainger goes in the Women’s Single Sculls. And Ross Murdoch swims for more glory in the 200m breaststroke.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing
