Bronze is still better by a Miley
BY MARK WOODS BRONZE felt as good as gold for Hannah Miley.
A dozen years after the Inverurie swimmer made her debut at a European Championships she walked out from the 2018 edition in Glasgow with another medal.
Miley threw everything into one last sprint down the Tollcross pool and came away with third place – just – in the 400metres individual medley final after Francine Lesaffre of France bagged the title ahead of Italy’s Ilaria Custinato.
Miley said: “I thought I might have been fifth or sixth so when I touched and saw I was in third, I thought, ‘Yes’!
“I’d love the times to be quicker but I wouldn’t change anything.
“I just have to work to get my progression. So I’m pretty chuffed to come away with a bronze here.”
Ross Murdoch crashed out in the 100m breaststroke heats despite the third quickest time.
Competition rules only allow two per country into the next round with Adam Peaty and James Wilby taking the top two spots.
Murdoch said: “I’m disappointed. I swam a great race. This is the best swim I have done in a heat by a country mile.”
It points to a medal tilt from the Scot in the 200m next week but Peaty is gunning for history today in the 100 final after lowering his championship record to 57.89 seconds in the heats. NEAH EVANS pressed paws on her track career to follow her lifetime dream of becoming a vet.
But the Scots cycling star was back in the Olympics chase in Glasgow as she scooped gold in the team pursuit.
The 28-year-old was curing sick puppies and taking care of abandoned kittens in Balloch just 18 months ago as she put ambitions of Games glory to the side to focus on her career.
Now, after playing her part in an awesome foursome that included Laura Kenny, Katie Archibald and Elinor Barker, that held off Italy at the Chris Hoy Velodrome, Evans reckons she’s back on track for a crack at Tokyo gold in 2020.
She said: “It’s been a rapid progression. It’s been a completely different structure because before I was based in Scotland. I was part of the Scottish Cycling programme and when I went full-time, I moved to Manchester.
“It’s changed my training dynamic. I’m training rather than going ‘I can work these hours’ or ‘I’m on call this night, how can I juggle?’
“I had a fantastic boss who was super-supportive who let me go racing and juggled my shifts but it’s nice to go to a race BY MARK WOODS and not have to set my alarm to get up in the morning!”
Archibald, who helped bag a winning time of 4mins 16.896secs, will go for a double today in the individual pursuit.
She said: “I’m a bit worried, it’s about 12 hours from the end of that race until qualifying so it’s not long to recover.”
In the men’s team pursuit, Italy outpaced Switzerland to top the podium.
But there was moderate success for the Brits with Ethan Hayter, Steven Burke, Kian Emadi and Charlie Tanfield beating Germany to bronze.
But there was a stunner when the Team GB men crashed out of the team sprint in the first round with Holland taking advantage to land the title, much to the frustration of six-time Olympic champion Jason Kenny who admitted: “We got it wrong.”
Russia took gold in women’s team sprint with Ukraine’s Roman Gladysh winning the 15km men’s scratch race.