British long distance runner Emily Pidgeon is one of the emerging young talents of European athletics and is expected to be among the gold medal contenders, probably at 5000m, at the 2011 European Athletics U23 Championships in Ostrava, Czech Republic, next July.
Despite still being just 21, the Loughborough University psychology student already has an extensive medal collection to her name.
Pidgeon won the 2005 European Athletics Junior Championships 5000m gold medal at the age of 16 and took the bronze in the same event two years later. She also won the European Athletics U23 Championships 5000m bronze medal last year in Kaunas, Lithuania.
She has shown herself to be very adept at cross country running, getting the silver medal as a junior at the 2005 SPAR European Cross Country Championships and fourth places in 2006 and 2008.
She has not yet made any comment on whether the 2010 SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Albufeira, Portugal, on 12 December are in her plans but if Pidgeon is on the start line of the under 23 race then she would certainly also be considered to be a candidate for a place on the podium.
In an extensive interview with the British newspaper Daily Mail, Pidgeon talks about her relationship with world and European marathon record holder Paul Radcliffe, of course, the 2012 Olympic Games on home soil in London and her dislike of tomatoes!
A website for the 8th European Athletics U23 Championships in Ostrava, Czech Republic, which will be held 14-17 July has already been created and contains a vast amount of information and news relating to the event in both English and Czech.