British team produce strong performance to take the trophy in Madrid

Great Britain’s next generation impressed once again on the world stage as they took the plaudits at the inaugural DNA (Dynamic New Athletics) U20 Indoors Match (February 22).

The indoor event in Madrid was a pre-cursor to the World Indoor Tour meet and saw young athletes from Great Britain, France, Czech Republic, Spain, Portugal and Ireland compete against each other over 10 events, before the ‘The Hunt’ – a winner takes-all mixed relay – finished off proceedings.

The DNA concept, first created by European Athletics in 2019, was designed so that disciplines take place one after the other, meaning all eyes can focus on every athlete at least once.

Following the England Athletics Indoor U20/U17/U15 Championships (Feb 12), which was essentially a qualification event for the DNA meet, a team of 18 athletes made the trip to the Spanish capital.

And the Brits reign in Spain! ?

Great Britain are your #DNAMadrid U20 champions! ?

(@BritAthletics)#AthleticsWithAttitude pic.twitter.com/9MK2sALDnM

— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) February 22, 2023

The opening mixed 4x400m team – Thomas Hockley, Ashley Nemits, Onyeka Okoh and Etty Sisson – set the tone for the morning and emerged victorious. Okoh provided propulsion on the anchor leg and the tactics of having a male on the last 200m worked a treat as the 18-year-old sped past the female athletes from both France and Czech Republic.

Nemits, who raced the second leg of the mixed 4x400m, won the under-20 400m title in Sheffield and is in the same training group as Keely Hodgkinson, under the stewardship of Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows.

In the 800m, Indienne King clocked 2:09.56 and finished second to Czech Republic’s Adela Holubova who won in 2:08.35.

Relay success continued for Great Britain as the duo of Sam Lunt and Sophie Walton edged out their Czech counterparts by one hundredth of a second in the mixed 2x2x200m.

Issac Delaney, who won the U20 shot put title at the England Athletics age group championships, lost his head-to-head against France’s Benjamin Zanetti.

The third success for Great Britain came in the 60m after Rusciano Thomas-Riley stormed to a time of 6.79 after a rocky start out of the blocks. That time was just two hundredths of a second off the 16-year-old’s personal best.

Thomas-Riley was a late replacement for Medwin Odamtten who pulled up injured at the UKA Indoor Championships (Feb 18).

Daniel Goriola went into Madrid as the under-20 national 60m hurdles champion and almost took victory with 7.69 but was outgunned by Spain’s superlative Daniel Castilla, who clocked 7.67 and broke a 24-year-old Spanish under-20 record in the process.

With British athletes consistently performing well in each of the disciplines, it meant Great Britain amassed 93 points in the first 10 events and went into The Hunt – a mixed relay comprising of a men’s 600m, women’s 400m, men’s 200m and women’s 800m – in a strong position. Spain had 80 points and Czech Republic collected 73.

The British foursome of David Race, Jessica Astill, Dean Patterson and Ava Lloyd were heavy favourites as they had a few seconds time advantage over Spain.

The quartet completed the race without drama and Lloyd eased home to round-off a superb day for Great Britain. The future looks bright.