History for Hunt and Asher-Smith in golden finish for GBFigure caption, Hunts wins fourth gold as Great Britain storm to mixed 4x100m relay victoryByHarry PooleBBC Sport journalistPublished1 hour agoAmy Hunt and Dina Asher-Smith made history and Georgia Hunter Bell claimed a commanding 1500m gold in a spectacular finish for Great Britain at the European Championships.Sprint sensation Hunt held up four fingers to the camera after holding off Germany’s challenge on the home straight of the mixed 4x100m relay as another sell-out crowd roared the 24-year-old on to an unprecedented fourth gold in Birmingham.The world silver medallist completed victory for the quartet in a European record 39.97 seconds to add to her triumphs in the 100m, 200m and women’s 4x100m in the past seven days.”Oh my gosh, I am over the moon. I think to finish it off with some of my best friends in the sport is incredible,” Hunt told BBC Sport.With her eighth gold and 11th medal overall, Asher-Smith is unparalleled as the most successful athlete in the competition’s 92-year history, with a team also featuring Jeremiah Azu and Zharnel Hughes extending the hosts’ domination of the sprint events.Hunter Bell expertly controlled the women’s 1500m final before bursting clear to continue her golden year by adding to world indoor and Commonwealth glory.That represented the 32-year-old’s seventh international medal in two years as she continues to build momentum on her fairytale return to the sport which she quit for five years following a promising junior career.Figure caption, GB’s Hunter-Bell comfortably wins ‘serene, beautiful’ 1500m goldIt was GB’s ninth gold medal overall – but they were pipped to top spot in the medal table by Italy, who edged them to the competition’s final gold in the men’s 4x400m relay by just 0.03 seconds.With silver in that event, Matthew Hudson-Smith, who was joined by Toby Harries, Ben Jefferies and Charlie Dobson, surpassed French sprinter Christophe Lemaitre as the most decorated man in championship history with his ninth medal overall.The home nation brought the curtain down on the first European Athletics Championships to be hosted in Great Britain with five medals in 76 minutes, taking their overall medal tally to 19.Long jumper Jazmin Sawyers continued her stunning return to form post-injury by producing a career-best series of results, but finished one centimetre shy of Italy’s gold medallist Larissa Iapichino with a best leap of 6.99 metres.There was also silver for the women’s 4x400m relay team, consisting of Yemi Mary John, Lina Nielsen, Nicole Yeargin and Emily Newnham, who finished 0.58 seconds behind a Dutch quartet anchored by 800m bronze medallist Femke Broeders-Bol.Figure caption, Dramatic last laps as GB take silver in men’s and women’s 4x400m relaysThe ‘GOAT’ and an ‘icon’ combine again for GBLess than 24 hours after combining with their respective men’s and women’s quartets to win 4x100m golds, Azu, Asher-Smith, Hughes and Hunt – in that order – made it six golds out of a possible seven across the sprint events.
Hunt described team-mate Asher-Smith as “the real life GOAT” [greatest of all time] after the 30-year-old won a record-equalling seventh gold on Saturday night, a decade on from capturing her first.
Despite feeling “absolutely terrified” during the event’s inaugural mixed 4x100m relay, Asher-Smith, world 200m champion in 2019, leaves Birmingham a 22-time international medallist in her senior career.
