Harriers athlete took gold at in the women’s 400m in Birmingham

Brent & Kilburn Times: Asha Philip (left) beats Rachel Miller (centre) to win the Women's 60m final at the British Indoor Championships (pic: Martin Rickett/PA)Asha Philip (left) beats Rachel Miller (centre) to win the Women's 60m final at the British Indoor Championships (pic: Martin Rickett/PA) (Image: PA Wire/PA Images)

Zoey Clark led an impressive list of medalists and European Championship qualifiers for Thames Valley Harriers at SPAR British Indoor Athletics Championships last weekend in Birmingham.

The 24-year-old was still recovering from a cold but managed to dismantle a high quality women’s 400m final field that featured Eilidh Doyle and Meghan Beesley in 52.85 seconds to guarantee her spot at next month’s European Indoor Athletics Championships in Glasgow.

And Scottish-born Clark, who will be returning to the second city to compete in Müller Indoor Grand Prix IAAF World Indoor Tour event this Saturday, will be looking to improve her times come the Euros.

After her win at the weekend, Clark said: “It’s a championship so it’s less about the time and more about the position

“I’m happy with the time, but I’m more happy with the medal.

“Now it’s about reassessing and focusing on Europeans. I’m looking to get a couple of good weeks of training in so I’m ready to peak there.

“I think I can definitely improve on my time; I didn’t have the best preparations as I had a cold all week so I’ll look to rest and definitely improve on that in Glasgow.”

Amelia Strickler will also join TVH colleague Clark in Glasgow after ending runner-up to Sophie McKinna (17.97m) in the women’s shot put final with a personal best throw of 17.28m.

“It was an indoor PB for me and just three cm short of my actual PB, so it wasn’t a bad meet for me,” said Strickland.

“Last year I was injured and missed all the indoors so this year has been a completely different show for me.

“I am very happy and to qualify for the Europeans is so, so special and to put on the GB vest again so I am excited moving forward.

“Between now and Glasgow it is about fine tuning things and getting a good rhythm and be ready to get to the final again.”

Rachel Miller will be donning a Team GB vest for the very first time come Euros time after finishing a close second to defending champion Asha Philip in women’s 60m final by a hundredth of a second.

Miller, 29, who equalled her PB effort of 7.20s from Vienna two weeks ago, gave huge praise to her legendary coach former Olympic and world 100m champion Linford Christie for helping her strive to her successes.

“Linford’s absolutely amazing and he’s been such a great support for me today,” she said.

“It was close but was a fantastic race. I just need to put a little more into it next time.

“It’s onwards and upwards from here definitely and I’m feeling very positive right now.”

Other TVH performances in Birmingham over the weekend saw Jack Hatton finish sixth with 7.91 in men’s 60m hurdles final.

Leroy Cain (men’s 60m), Nicholas Atwell (men’s 400m), Chris McAlister (men’s 400m), Jess Tappin (women’s 60m hurdles), Angelita Broadbelt-Blake (women’s 60m hurdles) all failed to advance past the opening rounds of their respective events.