Innes FitzGerald completed a magnificent distance double beating Olympic gold medallist Gabriela Szabo’s 32-year-old championships record to win the women’s 3000m at the European Athletics U20 Championships in Tampere on Sunday (10).
Tampere 2025 is being live streamed on the European Athletics website courtesy of Eurovision Sport.
Having won the 5000m on Thursday, the British athlete was brimming with confidence, and she took it out from the gun, establishing a ten metre lead within the opening half lap.
Czechia’s Jana Johanová made a plucky effort to stay within range and was 20 metres behind after two laps, with the chasing pack a further 20 metres adrift.
But the Czech soon realised it was a forlorn chase and settled back into the pack and the fight for silver and bronze.
Championship record within three seconds of men's winning team
FitzGerald pulled further and further away with each lap, establishing a 150 metre lead by the las lap. It was the British athlete against the clock, consistently lapping at 70-71 seconds. She dug in on the final lap and burst over the line in 8:46.39, hacking more than four seconds from Romanian legend Szabo’s previous record from San Sebastien 1993.
Incredibly, it was also just 3.19 seconds slower than the winning time in the men’s 3000m on Saturday.
Meanwhile, an intriguing battle was unfolding behind her for silver and bronze with her British teammate Isla McGowan, Johanová, 1500m silver medallist Carmen Cernjul of Sweden, Turkyie’s 5000m silver medallist Edibe Yagiz and Norway’s Wilma Bekkemoen Torbiörnsson all closely bunched at the bell.
Cernjul’s finishing speed came into play and she emerged from the group, running clear another silver medal in 9:08.87 sealing a successful championships, with Torbiörnsson fending off the rest to take bronze in 9:10.70.
Icing on the cake
"I am so pleased," said a beaming FitzGerald afterwards. "It was a big task to do the five and the three. I knew it was in me, but it was whether I could actually execute it on the day. So I am pleased to come away with that win today.
"And I knew that the Championships record was there as well. So to get that is just the icing on the cake. It was tough. I did not know how it was going to go. Some of those girsl are so good and I did not know whether they would come with me or not.
"So the first couple of laps was a bit of a game. I was like 'Oh, am I by myself or not?' And then I realised that I am and I just got to grind it out to keep going. The crowd was amazing pushing me every lap.
"The championships like this are really good for gaining experience. And then hopefully, I can take that into Tokyo to the heats, and then hopefully to the final. Next for me - Brussels Diamond League."