By Owen Morgan
Welsh sprinting siblings Hannah and Joe Brier have enjoyed an eventful few days on the track.
Firstly Joe represented Great Britain at the Tokyo Olympics where he took part in the men’s 4x400m relay heats.
The following day, Hannah was a gust of wind away from breaking the Welsh women’s 100m record at the National Athletics League Match in Yate.
Just over a month ago, Joe was preparing to compete at the European Under-23 Championships in Tallinn.
But a late call-up as a travelling reserve for the GB Olympic 4x400m squad meant the Swansea Harrier was heading for Japan rather than Estonia.
Olympian – thanks for all the love and support over the past few weeks💫🇬🇧🇯🇵 pic.twitter.com/XbCL5VNftA
— Joe Brier (@joebrier99) August 9, 2021
The subsequent withdrawal of team-mate Matthew Hudson Smith meant that Brier was promoted to the 4×400 squad in Tokyo.
And when GB announced their strike team for Friday’s heats at Tokyo’s Olympic Stadium, the Neath athlete was selected to run the second leg of the race.
Up against the likes of former World Indoor Champion Pavel Maslak on his leg, Brier held his own before passing on the baton to Lee Thompson as GB eventually finished sixth, in what was by far the tougher of the two heats, behind eventual gold medal winners USA.
Unfortunately, the GB team’s season’s best performance of 3:03.29 wasn’t enough to qualify for the final.
But the experience gained by Brier and his team-mates will be invaluable with next year’s World Athletics Championships in Oregon and the 2024 Paris Olympics in mind.
The day after her brother’s Olympic debut, older sister Hannah was competing for Swansea Harriers at the National Athletics League Premiership West match in the south west of England.
The Weekend Round Up – Match 3 of the National Athletics League
It was another great weekend of club athletics at the 3rd NAL in Yate.https://t.co/j6bq97kdLA pic.twitter.com/k6at1yraFz
— @welshathletics (@WelshAthletics) August 9, 2021
Hannah, who represented Wales as a 16-year-old at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow had already been in excellent form this season having run some of her fastest times since 2016.
Last month, the former Welsh champion won gold in the 200m at the English Athletics Championships in Bedford, clocking 23.66.
On Saturday, the 23-year-old ran a blistering time of 11.34 over 100m, which would have shaved 0.05 of a second off the Welsh record which she already holds jointly with Sallyanne Short and Elaine O’Neill.
The time would also have met the qualifying standard for next year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, but for an illegal tail wind just 0.7m/s over the limit – the only one recorded for the sprints at the meeting.
Both Briers are entered to run a next weekend’s Welsh Athletics Senior Championships in Cardiff.