Atheltics: Child succeeds while Sharp comes up short in race for Olympic places

While Lynsey Sharp (Edinburgh AC) may not have done quite enough to clinch her place in the British team for the Olympics by capturing the silver medal in the 800 metres at the European Championships in Helsinki, her fellow Scot, Pitreavie’s Eilidh Child, strengthened her chances of being in the 4x400m relay team by clocking one of the fastest individual “split” times in the event.

After running a fine opening leg from the blocks in 51.8 seconds on Saturday to help Team GB qualify for the final, Child was “promoted” to the anchor leg for yesterday’s final and only just failed to bring them home for a medal, GB coming in a desperately close fourth behind the Ukraine, France and Czech Republic.

Despite appearing to be baulked by the Czech runner at the line, Child recorded 50.86 for her flying stage compared to Glasgow’s Lee McConnell’s 51.42 on lap three, 51.50 for Nicola Sanders on the second lap and a disappointing 52.4 by Shana Cox on the first leg.

European and Olympic champion Christine Ohuruogu warmed up then chose not to run but will clearly come into the frame for the quartet who bid for an Olympic medal in just over a month’s time as will Child’s close hurdles rival Perri Shakes-Drayton. Sharp’s club EAC have made a valiant effort to ward off the threat of relegation after finishing fourth out of eight in the second UK Women’s League Premier Division match at Eton on Saturday.

EAC are joint sixth on league points and eighth when the match points are taken into account.