Adam Gemili storms to gold in 200m

Adam Gemili roared with wide-eyed delight as the clock at Zurich’s Letzigrund Stadium showed he had become European 200 metres champion in 19.98 seconds, making him the first Briton in history to legally break 20 seconds on two occasions. Take into account a track dampened by sporadic torrential downpours here yesterday and a 1.6m-per-second headwind and it becomes apparent how much more the 20-year-old has to offer. A prominent athletics statistician suggested it would be worth 19.90 in still conditions and 19.82 with a 1.6mps tailwind. The British record of 19.87 set by John Regis when Gemili was less than a year old will surely not stand for long. ‘I’m so happy to be European champion, it was a big target for me,’ Gemili said. ‘It’s really cold and late but I saved my energy from the rounds and to run sub-20 is great. ‘It’s also really nice to beat Christophe Lemaitre. It’s a great feeling and the Brits now have the 100m and 200m title here. I’ll be singing my heart out on the podium. Athletics is so much fun and it’s an honour to be here.’ Gemili ran an almost perfect race, exploding out of the blocks and accelerating round the bend. He remained strong down the home straight, leaving France’s Lemaitre, a 19.80 runner at his best, to scrap it out for silver. As well as enhancing his reputation on the track, Gemili proved he is a gentleman off it when a woman in the crowd asked for his race number as a souvenir. He dutifully got an official to unpin the sheet on his back and hand it over. Source: dailymail