12:00pm Friday 30th July 2010
ELAINE O’Neill knows what it takes to win a relay gold and will carry that winning mentality into the European Championships finale this weekend.
The 20-year-old former St Augustine’s, Trow-bridge, pupil is making her senior international championship debut in Barcelona this week, just a year after helping the GB relay squad win gold at the European U23 Championships in Lithuania with a stunning anchor leg.
Events like that have given her a good grounding but she knows she is now mixing it with the elite of European athletics and both she and her teammates will have to raise their game in the heats of the 4x100m relay on Saturday morning if they are to book their spot in the final the following day.
“I’m really looking forward to my first European Championships as a senior and hopefully it will be the first of many,” said O’Neill. “It is very exciting but also a bit nerve-wracking but it is a great opportunity for me.”
O’Neill has been at the GB training camp in Portugal for the past 10 days, working with the relay squad.
Six women have been named in the relay squad, just one of whom, UK number one Laura Turner, has also been named for the individual 100m event.
Barring injury that virtually guarantees her a place in the relay outfit so the other five girls are all competing for three places although of those O’Neill is the next quickest in the UK rankings.
“I was in the team for the European Team Challenge so that has given me a lot of confidence,” added O’Neill.
“But I also know I have to perform in training to make sure the coaches pick me for the team. The competition is tough and I know I’ll have to be at my best. I’m really looking forward to it and if we make the final then who knows what might happen.”
© Copyright 2001-2012 Newsquest Media Group
http://www.thisiswiltshire.co.uk/trade_directory/