Kirsten takes a shine to silver — and Rio place
KIRSTEN McASLAN has vowed to become a relay fixture ahead of Rio 2016 after the 21-year- old Scot delivered a sparkling anchor leg to help Great Britain’s women to 4x400m silver in a medal- filled final night at the European Indoor Championships in Prague.
With France pulling away, it was a five-way scrap behind but McAslan, on her senior debut, produced the quickest leg to secure second place.
‘To come away with silver is awesome,’ she said. ‘I’ve shown I have a good relay leg in me and I can be trusted to perform when it counts.
‘Hopefully, the selectors will see that. I want to be chosen in relay all the time now and have a regular place.’
Another Scots medal winner, Chris O’Hare, claimed he has ample room for improvement, despite landing bronze in the 1,500metres.
The 24-year- old from West Linton had to dig deep on the final lap to hold off his rivals and claim the second international medal of his career, with Czech favourite Jakub Holusa snatching victory from Turk Ilham Ozbilen.
However, O’Hare — who will now return to his Boston base to build towards the summer’s World Championships in Beijing — revealed he pushed through the pain barrier to walk away with a prize.
‘I’m a bit of skin lighter,’ he said. ‘In the first five metres, I got stood on from behind. I’ll get some stitches and I’ll be OK. The first couple of laps it felt more than a scratch — but it wasn’t going to stop me.’
Inverness runner Jamie Bowie missed out on an expected medal as Britain’s men slumped to fifth in their 4x400 final, while Guy Learmonth had f ew complaints in coming sixth in the 800m final in 1:47.84.
‘It was tough,’ the 22-year-old from Berwick admitted. ‘I just didn’t have enough at the end.’
Great Britain finished on a total of nine medals, with Richard Kilty adding European gold to his world title in the 60m and Dinah Asher- Smith claiming silver over the same distance in the women’s race, equalling the UK record of 7.08 seconds.
Kilty beat German duo Christian Blum and Julian Reus comfortably i nto silver and bronze, respectively. The sprint had been teed up as a battle of the Brits but Chijindu Ujah, who qualified second-quickest for the final behind Kilty, was disqualified for a false start.
Kilty, the self- proclaimed ‘Teesside Tornado,’ declared afterwards: ‘A few people have called me a one-hit wonder.
‘I don’t think they should do that again. I’m a fearless warrior when I’m on the track.’
On International Women’s Day, it was fitting that Asher-Smith became the first British woman in 30 years — since Heather Oakes won bronze in Athens in 1985 — to win a 60m medal.
Her time equalled Jeanette Kwakye’s British record.
‘People told me: “You could break the record or equal it”, but there’s a difference between saying it and doing it,’ said Asher-Smith.