European U18 Silver Medallist Emily Williams capped an astonishing season with a magnificent victory in the 1500m at the British & Irish SIAB International winning a Gold medal for England with a performance which saw her finish 9 seconds ahead of second place Welsh athlete Samia Jones, and 11 seconds ahead of Fellow England athlete Olivia Mason who took the bronze medal.
Emily Williams wins Gold for England at the British & Irish SIAB Championship
Since concentrating this season on the longer of the two classic middle distance events UK Number 1 Williams has put in a series of truly astonishingly consistent performances, running four of the UK’s 5 fastest times this season, and is undefeated all season at U17. Even in U20 AG she is ranked in the top 5 in the UK with a further 3 years to grow into the age group. Statistics are great but its championships which count and Williams has quickly mastered the championship tactics needed for qualification rounds & finals and in addition to her European U18 Silver medal Williams also won Gold at English Schools Championship before fishing the season with her 2nd SIAB International Gold.
The race featured the two leading athletes from the English, Welsh, Scottish and all Irish National championships and Williams, as has been typical this season, went to the front to control the race setting a steady opening lap, but with England’s Mason & Wales Jones keen to push the pace the three broke away from the pack. In a repeat of her fine English schools win Williams kept injecting pace on the penultimate lap and with 400m to go she was 5m clear, and a sensational last lap saw Williams powering away from the chasing pack to open a 70m gap and finish in a fine 4:28.42 with the largest winning distance from the track performances on the day.
Outstanding performance for Emily Williams with a huge winning margin
Williams was delighted with her 2nd SIAB track Gold will now look to close down her summer track season with few weeks of low level training before commencing with her summer break. Going forward she will look to continue her interest in both the 800m where is UK ranked No2 this year, as well as the 1500m with both events adding to the sum of her talents.
Coach Shane Smith who masterminded her challenge this season over 1500m was delighted with her performance, “Emily performance today was totally commanding, she has grown as an athlete this season in so many areas and has matured massively.” He added “We decided at the start of the season to concentrate mainly on the 1500m to gain championship experience, and she has shown she is a phenomenal athlete over both the 800m & 1500m and we will look to continue her involvement in both events going forward.”
Emily Williams celebrates Gold with Coach Shane Smith
Well done to Emily (& Coach) on a brilliant season in 2018!