Snowden named in GB team for European Indoor Champs in Poland

Herne Hill Harriers’ Katie Snowden returned to the indoor track at SportCity in Manchester on Sunday to race again eight days after her first competition of 2021 and again placed second in the women’s 1500m. On this occasion the event was the British Athletics European Indoor Selection Trial meeting, one of three trials events held at different venues as a lower key replacement for the cancelled British Championship and her performance has secured her inclusion in the Great Britain team for the European Championship in Torun, Poland between 4-7th March.

Snowden finished even closer behind Holly Archer than the previous weekend as her rival just got ahead in the final few strides of an exciting race. The early pace was not quick until Snowden took control after 800m and quickly stretched the field of six athletes. This left just three in contention at the bell with 200m remaining, when 800m specialist Ellie Baker briefly went ahead before Snowden reclaimed the lead only for Archer to produce the strongest finish for the win on the line. 

The winning time of 4:13.02 was just 0.02 seconds outside the qualifying standard, with Snowden clocking 4:13.16. With both Archer and Snowden having run almost three seconds faster in their previous encounter this was sufficient to see both athletes selected for Team GB.

Snowden’s decision to compete in this event was vindicated by a very positive display of front running, leading for almost all of the final 700m and confirms the form she had shown a week earlier at the same venue and at the end of quite a hard week of training. She can now look forward to her first major international representation since racing for England in the 2018 Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in Australia. 

Geoff Jerwood
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