by Stuart WeirThe 2021 Euopean Indoor Champs will be held March 4-7, 2021 in Torun, Poland. The track used at Sopot WIC 2014 was purchased and moved to Torun, Poland’s public arena, which seats about 4,000. The site is awesome and the Polish audience loves athletics, especially the local heroes. The pandemic has made a challenge in picking teams and Team GB has had its challenges. We thank Stuart Weir on this one.
Torun, Poland will host the 2021 Euopean Indoo Athletics Championships, photo via BBC TV by Stuart Weir.
GB Team for Torun
British Athletics has selected a team of 41* to represent Great Britain and Northern Ireland at the 2021 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Torun, Poland between 4-7 March. The team contains a nice mix of experienced, world class, athletes like Andrew Pozzi, Holly Bradshaw and Tiffany Porter plus a number of young athletes like Keely Hodgkinson (18), Verity Ockenden (19) Holly Mills (20), Isabelle Boffey (20), Amelia Quirk (21) and Joe Brier (22). Then there are older athletes like Jessie Knight (26) who is making her first ever GB senior team and Jodie Wiiliams (27) who is making her first British team in the 400m and her first GB indoor team since 2012. But then Jodie only ran indoors 3 times 2015-20.
Jessie Knight, photo by Getty Images / British Athletics
Jessie Knight told me: “I’m over the moon to be selected for the 400m and 4x400m relay and gain my first GB vest. I’ve worked hard for this for a long time so can’t wait to get out there and give it my all”.
The team’s strongest event looks like the men’s 800 in which all three athletes, Elliott Giles, Guy Learmonth and Jamie Webb have run indoor PRs this year.
In an Olympic year, athletes choose to prepare in different ways, not to mention the training complications of COVID, all of which has meant that some potential medal-winners – Laura Muir and Jemma Reekie for example – have decided not to include the European Indoors in their plans. Katerina Johnson Thompson is injured and therefore not available.
Remarkable there is no British athlete in the women’s 60m. Dina Asher-Smith was originally planning to run but has now ended her indoor season as a precaution. Asha Philip, twice a European medallist has opted not to compete. Tt is remarkable that Britain won Olympic and world women’s sprint relay medals last time, but we cannot find one athlete for the women’s 60m.
Olympic Head Coach at British Athletics, Christian Malcolm, said: “I’m pleased to be selecting such a strong Great Britain and Northern Ireland team for the European Indoor Championships next month. It has been a challenging time for all athletes and coaches recently, but we have seen some incredible performances. Of course, we are looking to maximise the number of opportunities to win medals, but it is also about providing opportunities for developing athletes as well as established athletes to achieve a GB&NI vest. We have a real mix in the squad with several young athletes demonstrating their potential in really challenging circumstances. I am really looking forward to seeing how the team perform in Torun”.
The team’s 41* athletes compares with 48 in 2019. There is no official medal target but GB seems unlikely to equal the 12 medals, gained with home advantage in Glasgow 2019. Of the winners of the twelve 2019 medals only Jamie Webb and Holly Bradshaw are in the 2021 team with Asha Philip, Chris O’Hare, KJT, Laura Muir (2 medals in 2019), Melissa Courtney-Bryant, Niamh Emerson, Shelayna Oskan-Clarke and Tim Duckworth absent. There will be a women’s 4 by 400 team in Torun but with only one of the 2019 quartet.
The provisional* team is as follows
The British Athletics team for the European Athletics Indoor Championships 4-7 March 2021:Format: Athlete (Coach, club)
Women:
400m:
Jessie Knight (Marina Armstrong; Windsor Slough Eton & Hounslow)
Ama Pipi (Linford Christie; Enfield & Haringey)
Jodie Williams (Ryan Freckleton; Herts Phoenix)
800m:
Keely Hodgkinson, photo by Getty Images / British Athletics
Ellie Baker (Jon Bigg; Shaftesbury Barnet)
Isabelle Boffey (Luke Gunn; Enfield & Haringey)
Keely Hodgkinson (Trevor Painter; Leigh)
1500m:
Holly Archer (Andrew Parmenter; Cambridge & Coleridge)
Katie Snowden (Dan Stepney; Herne Hill)
3000m:
Amy-Eloise Markovc (Chris Fox; Wakefield)
Verity Ockenden (Tony Houchin; Swansea)
Amelia Quirk (Mick Woods; Bracknell)
4x400m Relay:
Zoey Clark (Eddie McKenna; Thames Valley)
Beth Dobbin (Leon Baptiste; Edinburgh)
Jessie Knight (Marina Armstrong; Windsor Slough Eton & Hounslow)
Yasmin Liverpool (Stewart Marshall; Coventry)
Ama Pipi (Linford Christie; Enfield & Haringey)
Jodie Williams (Ryan Freckleton; Herts Phoenix)
60m Hurdles:
Emma Nwofor (Newham & Essex Beagles)
Tiffany Porter (Jeff Porter; Woodford Green Essex Ladies)
Cindy Sember (Jeff Porter; Woodford Green Essex Ladies)
Pole Vault:
Holly Bradshaw (Scott Simpson; Blackburn)
Holly Badshaw, photo by Getty Images / British Athletics
Long Jump:
Abigail Irozuru, photo by Getty / British Athletics
Abigail Irozuru (self-coached; Sale Harriers Manchester)
Shot Put:
Sophie McKinna (Mike Winch; Great Yarmouth)
Pentathlon:
Holly Mills (Laura Turner-Alleyne; Andover)
Men:
60m:
Harry Aikines-Aryeetey (Benke Blomkvist; Sutton & District)
Oliver Bromby (Marvin Rowe; Southampton)
Andrew Robertson (Sam Robertson; Sale Harriers Manchester)
400m:
Joe Brier (Matt Elias; Swansea)
Lee Thompson (John Henson; Sheffield & Dearne)
James Williams (Paul Waters; Liverpool)
800m:
Elliot Giles (Jon Bigg; Birchfield)
Guy Learmonth (Justin Rinaldi; Lasswade)
Jamie Webb (Adrian Webb; Liverpool)
Guy Learmonth, photo by Getty Images / British Athletics
1500m:
Piers Copeland (Bob Smith; Wimborne)
Archie Davis (Joel Kidger; Brighton Phoenix)
Neil Gourley (Ben Thomas; Giffnock North)
3000m:
Andrew Butchart (Barry Fudge; Central)
Jack Rowe (Tim Eglen; Aldershot Farnham & District)
Marc Scott (Jerry Schumacher; Cambridge & Coleridge)
Mac Scott, the Ten, 10,000m in 27:10.41, photo by Sound running
4x400m Relay:
Joe Brier (Matt Elias; Swansea)
Efe Okoro (Tony Hadley; Birchfield Harriers)
Tom Somers (Newham & Essex Beagles)
Owen Smith (Matt Elias; Cardiff)
Lee Thompson (John Henson; Sheffield & Dearne)
James Williams (Paul Waters; Liverpool)
60m Hurdles:
Andrew Pozzi (Santiago Antunez; Stratford-upon-Avon)
Long Jump:
Jacob Fincham-Dukes (Matt Barton; Leeds City)
*There is one caveat: due to the limited qualification opportunities as a result of Covid-19, European Athletics have amended their qualification process to allow nomination of unqualified field athletes for selection to the Technical Delegates. British Athletics have notified the athletes who have been nominated under this rule and European Athletics will confirm on 25 February whether or not the nominations have been accepted and these will be published soon after. We are awaiting decisions from European Athletics on several field event nominations that we have put forward, so we hope to add several other athletes to the team later this week.
