Inverness Harriers’ Megan Keith surged to gold in the women’s 5,000 metres on Thursday night at the European Under-23 Championships in Espoo, Finland.
The 21-year-old Highlander, a former European cross-country champion at under-20 level and then U23 Euro cross-country silver-medallist in Italy last year, surged clear in the closing laps on the track to win in 15:34.33.
She ended up nine seconds clear of Spain’s Maria Forero with fellow Scot Eloise Walker falling metres from the end of the race before getting back to her feet to finish fifth, having threatened her own title assault.
The moment of victory! 🙌
Megan Keith wins the women’s 5000m from the front in #Espoo2023! 🥇 pic.twitter.com/K8tv4No0Xp
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) July 13, 2023
‘You are the European champion’ moment, as Keith says home straight determination came from pain of U20s near-miss
“I hoped I had it when it was like 300m to go and I could see on the screen that I made a gap,” Great Britain’s Keith said.
“But my kick is not the strongest in the race and I knew that Eloise has a better finish and she is stronger than me, so it was only on the home straight when I heard them say: ‘You are the European champion’ – so I was not sure until the end.
“We have been training very consciously and carefully developing since last year. I really was not ready to do the 5k last year.
“But, today, it was like come out, run on this track, get the show and now I am so happy how I managed it.
“In the last lap, I think I had a few flashbacks on how I missed the medal at under 20s by only 0,02 I think, because of my shoulder.
“I did not decelerate but I thought that I was there, but I came fourth. So this time, I wanted to make sure that it was me.”
🔥¡María Forero logra la segunda medalla para España en el Europeo sub-23 de atletismo!
🏃♀️Se proclama subcampeona de Europa en los 5000 metros en una carrera marcada por la agonía de Walker, que ha perdido el bronce en la misma recta de metahttps://t.co/RtgLoeBL1W pic.twitter.com/6SLUf9HgJQ
— Teledeporte (@teledeporte) July 13, 2023