Hannah Brier celebrates winning gold in the 200m. Pic: Owen Morgan.

Bethan Davies, Hannah Brier And Piers Copeland Lead A Welsh Gold Rush At UK Championships

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By Owen Morgan

Welsh athletes enjoyed a gold rush of medals on the second day of the UK Indoor Athletics Championships in Birmingham on Sunday.

Bethan Davies, Hannah Brier and Piers Copeland led the way by claiming UK titles in the 3,000m race walk, 200m and 1500m respectively.

Meanwhile, there were bronze medals for Lauren Evans in the pentathlon and shot-putter Adele Nicoll, who only earlier this week returned from the Beijing Winter Olympics where she represented Great Britain in the bobsleigh.

Race walker Davies was the first to strike gold on Wales’s Super Sunday as she dominated the 3,000m final.

The Cardiff athlete led from start to finish and crossed the line in 13:24.07 – a full minute ahead of second placed Hannah Cooper, of Cambridge.

The win was the perfect warm-up for Davies, who represents Great Britain at the World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships in the heat of Muscat next Friday.

The 31-year-old multiple British champion said after the race: “I’m flying off to next week’s Race Walking Championships in Oman tomorrow and I wanted to get a little speed in my legs.

Bethan Davies on her way to gold in Birmingham. Pic: Owen Morgan.

“I was just seeing how I felt and the track was bouncy so it was quite difficult to control. Today and Oman will be a completely different experience with different surfaces and distances as I’m doing the 20km on a 2km loop at the championships.”

Looking further ahead, Davies is also setting her sights on a place at a second Commonwealth Games in Birmingham this summer.

“Commonwealths in 2018 was one of the highlights of my career and putting on the Welsh vest was one of the proudest moments for me and my family so it will be amazing to do that again in Birmingham.”

Earlier in the day, Davies’ fellow Commonwealth Games competitor Brier had blasted her way to the 200m final as the fastest qualifier with a blistering new personal best of 23.69.

And the Swansea Harrier carried that form into the final later in the afternoon by lowering her PB again to 23.64 as she claimed gold by 600ths of a second ahead of Rotherham’s  Ellie Booker.

Brier, who represented Wales at the 2014 Commonwealth Games as a 16-year-old, is in the form of her life this year having won all 10 of her races indoors this season.

“I can’t put it into words how good this feels,” said Brier, who has suffered from a number of injuries in recent years. “With two PBs over the weekend and British champion, I am so happy.

“It has been a long road and I haven’t run these times since I was 16. To come back and pull it out in a final is brilliant.

 

“It is part of being an athlete – needing to adapt. I have run mostly 60s this indoors but I fancied a change and I haven’t yet got the qualifying time for 200m for Wales for the Commonwealth Games.

“I potentially will fly out to the States to try and get that 200m, so this has been good preparation.

“I shall aim for the other champs, too, but the girls in UK are running insane times so it’ll be very tough.  As a Welsh runner the Commonwealths mean so much to us.”

In between Davies and Brier’s triumphs, Pontypridd Roadents athlete Copeland claimed his own slice of golden glory in a high class 1500m final.

In a tactical race, the early running was made by Copeland’s fellow Welsh finalist James Heneghan, of Cardiff Athletics.

As the final progressed, Great Britain internationals Neil Gourley and Charlie Da’Vall Grice, himself a World Championship finalist, joined the mix for medals.

But it was Copeland who timed his run perfectly in the closing stages to cruise smoothly into the lead and claim gold ahead of Gourley and Da’Vall Grice in 3:49.01. Heneghan finished fifth in 3:51.30.

A delighted Copeland said: “It’s my first British Champs win which is exciting.

 

“I ran pretty well although I did make an error with 400m to go. Three guys went past me so I had to work really hard to get back. But off the last bend I timed it well, although it was close in the end.

“I thought I had a good chance after yesterday and after running a PB last week.”

On the prospect of competing at next month’s World Indoor Athletics Championships, Copeland said:  “Belgrade hadn’t been in my plans for this season, but, of course, now I will sit down with my coach later and see what he thinks.

“The outdoor season is so big this year. The first priority is to get the 1500m standard for the Worlds and then it’ll be to come top two in the trials. Commonwealths, also, I would love to go to that. I think I will stick to 1500m all this year.”

Piers Copeland celebrates winning gold as he crosses the line in the 1500m. Pic: Owen Morgan.

Having helped Great Britain qualify for the two-woman bobsleigh for the Beijing Winter Olympics, where she was the reserve brake woman, Adele Nicoll slipped seamlessly back into life as a shot putter just days after returning from China.

The Birchfield Harrier, who has been enjoying remarkable improvements in her distances since combining bobsleigh with shot put, was at it again on Sunday.

Stepping up for her first throw of the competition, Nicoll launched the shot to a huge new indoor PB of 17.02, which would eventually secure her a bronze medal behind Sophie McKinna and Amelia Strickler.

There was also a bronze medal in the pentathlon for multi-eventer Lauren Evans, who enjoyed consistent performances across the five events.

The Cardiff athlete rounded off her day with PBs of 5.68m in the long jump and 2:22.78 in the 800m. Evans’ final total of 4,020 was also a new PB.

In the women’s 3,000m, Brighton’s Beth Kidger just missed out on a medal as she finished fourth in a new PB of 9:14.95.

 

Cardiff’s Cari Hughes was fifth, also in a PB of 9:18.93, while clubmate Kate Seary was eighth in 9:33.64.

Another Cardiff athlete, Rebecca Chapman, leapt to a new indoor PB of 6.30m to claim fifth place in a high quality long jump final.

Full results from both days of the championships are on the British Athletics website.

 

 

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