European Athletic Championships 2018

Morpeth’s Laura Weightman superbly maintained her love affair with major championships
on Sunday evening in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium, when she won a Bronze medal behind
fellow Brit Laura Muir in the Women’s 1500m final at the European’s.

Weightman very much immediately went to the front of affairs in the three and three-quarter lap event,
and led the field until two laps to go, when Muir went to the front.
At that point, Muir put in a 62 second lap to take the bell, having established a very strong lead.

With 200m remaining as Muir drew further ahead, Weightman, who had chased her alone after she broke,
began to weaken slightly, and with 100m to go, with Muir now well clear, Weightman was caught by her heat winner from the Friday Sofia Ennaoui of Poland.

Weightman dug deep at this point, and while she couldn’t quite match the finishing pace of Ennaoui,
she managed to hold off Ireland’s Ciara Mageean to win her second European Bronze,
by nearly a whole second, posting a time of 4m03.75s.

Whilst this was Weightman’s second European outdoor Bronze medal,
it was Muir’s first outdoor Gold Medal, and in fact Britain’s first outdoor European Gold.

Weightman had very nearly won her heat on the Friday, where she posted the second fastest
​ overall heat time of 4m08.74s, and the end result of a Bronze medal was very rewarding.