Euro championship slot for Greenwood
Perth track ace off to Italy to compete in junior contest
Ben Greenwood will run at the Euro Juniors Ben Greenwood has booked a place in Great Britain’s team for the European Junior Athletics Championships.
The Perth track ace will head for Grosseto in Italy next month after nailing down the required 800m qualifying time.
Competing for GB is always an honour for the middle distance runner, who previously attended Perth Academy.
The 18-year-old said: “It’s a big achievement for me and my coach. It shows that the work we are putting in is working and that we are still developing year on year.
“I missed out on a GB selection last year due to just not running as I felt I was capable of when it came to the races.
“Being back in the GB vest will be a huge honour and one I hope I can do justice this time round.
“My main aim for the Euro juniors is to obviously be as competitive as I can be. I want to go there and put together a good sequence of races, running confidently and strongly is the target.
“I believe that if I run to my full ability then there’s always the possibility of something special to come from it, who knows what can happen during a championship.”
“Before Italy I’ll be running at the British Championships and World Trials on June 31 and July 1.
“There’s also going to be a fast race thrown in but we haven’t decided where this will be yet. Mostly we want to get some solid training in and come back Greenwood (left) and Sol Sweeney with their silver medals in great shape for the championships.”
Greenwood’s current form is solid having bagged an under-20 800m silver medal at the England Athletics Championships in Bedford at the weekend.
It was a pleasing performance for the Perth Strathtay Harrier and he said: “I felt the race for me was good.
“I executed my race plan and did absolutely everything I could to try and win and get the required top two position I was after.
“It’s always tough coming second but I gave everything I could and got beaten by a better athlete on the day.
“Compared to this time last year I’m running significantly better. I’m stronger, faster and more capable of running a race regardless of its pace.
“I notice improvements in training when the times are compared to where I was last year and how certain sessions feel compared to previous times I’ve run them.”
British Athletics’ team manager for the European Junior Championships, Jo Summers, was impressed with the standard on show in Bedford.
She said: “We saw some terrific performances over the weekend in Bedford in fantastic conditions, and this is reflected in the amount of automatic qualifiers we have been able to select in round one.
“What was evident on the weekend was the ability in many to perform when it counts, and hopefully we will see more of the same come the championships.”
The European Juniors take place in Grosseto, Italy from July 20-23.