ATHLETICS: Steeplechaser Hatti Dean and triple jumper Nathan Douglas will both feature in their respective finals at the European Athletics Championships in Barcelona after progressing from their heats.
Oxford City AC athlete Douglas, 27, only required one jump of 16.80m to join GB teammate Phillips Idowu in the final. The 2006 silver medallist said: "I couldn't have asked for much more in the first round. It was perfect for me.
"I was thinking I probably qualified around the same sort of distance when I last got to the final and things just started to click. Preparation has not been great, but it only takes one jump. This was just the first part of the challenge, the second part is on Thursday."
Douglas jumps in the final at 7.40pm tonight. Dean, meanwhile, overcame temperatures of around 30 degrees to secure a spot in the final of the 3,000m steeplechase after finishing third in her heat. The former St Helen and St Katherine's School, Abingdon, pupil, 28, took the lead on lap three after a slow start and finished just five hundredths of a second behind Polish winner Wiolette Frankiewicz.
"My initial plan was to keep relaxed for the first couple of laps and then I realized it wasn't that fast so I just went to the front and it was so much easier running at the front," said Dean, who will be GB's sole representative in Friday's final after Barbara Parker could only finish tenth in her heat.
"With 600m to go I looked back and saw we were just a group of three, so then I relaxed a bit but just keep pushing on. I don't like running in the heat at all but i found it just about bearable. I'm so happy i've never run in a final before it's just brilliant."
