Athletics is underway! Days 1-2 from the Olympic Games

After a long wait, the athletics action is finally underway at the Paris Olympic Games. Kicking off with the 20km walks, Callum Wilkinson had to contend with some very hot, challenging conditions on the streets of Paris to finish a respectable 16th place. On day two, the purple track of the Stade De France made its debut as the track and field action began. Let's see how the English athletes got on.

Day 1 - 20km race walk

Following a short delay in start time due to thunderstorms, the men’s 20km race walking kickstarted the athletics action in Paris. The 1km course offered an amazing setting right in the heart of Paris, overlooked by the Eiffel Tower. It was Brian Pintado who managed to claim the first athletics gold medal of the Olympics, with a historic win for Ecuador.

Team GB’s Callum Wilkinson (Enfield and Haringey, Rob Heffernan) secured a 16th place finish, with a strong showing in the second half of the race. Finishing with a time of 1:20:31, just seconds away from his personal best, Wilkinson reflected on the race:

"It was good. It was hard. It was an amazing, amazing course. I was feeling really good when about 12k it started to bite. So I was thinking ‘stay with these and relax…stay with these and relax’"

Wilkinson also acknowledged the hard work and resilience it took to bounce back from his recent injury struggles: "...since I tore my calf in January we have nailed every single training session. By rights I shouldn’t be here, but I’ve worked really hard to be here."

Day 2 from the Stade De France

First up for Team GB was Morgan Lake (Windsor, Slough, Eton & Hounslow, Robbie Grabarz) as she contested the women’s high jump qualification. It wasn't to be for Lake as she finished outside of the qualification spots in 15th with 1.88m. Speaking on her performance, Morgan said:

"This is my third Olympics and I know every round matters. I was playing around with the maths and I thought I’d done enough to go through, but it turns out it wasn’t.

I felt really good coming into this. I’d jumped 1.95m last week. I knew what it would take. I still haven’t processed what went wrong."

It was a clean sweep for the female sprinters in the 100m as Daryll Neita (Cambridge Harriers, Marco Airale), Dina Asher-Smith (Blackheath and Bromley) and Imani-Lara Lansiquot (Sutton & District, Ryan Freckleton) all made it safely through to the semi-finals.

Scotland’s Josh Kerr (Edinburgh AC, Danny Mackey) has stamped his intentions as he cruises through the first round of the 1500m in 3:35.83 with Neil Gourley (Giffnock North, Ben Thomas) timing his push to perfection in the last 100m to qualify for the semi finishing in 5th (3:37.18). George Mills (Brighton Phoenix) had to battle some top athletes and unfortunately did not make it through the first round finishing in 10th place (3:35.99). There will be another opportunity for George in the repechage round tomorrow night. This new format will give athletes a second chance to qualify if they do not advance out of the heats.

Over the two laps, Keely Hodgkinson (Leigh AC, Trevor Painter), Jemma Reekie (Kilbarchan, Jon Bigg) and Phoebe Gill (St Albans, Deborah Steer) all made it safely through to the semi-final.

Yorkshire's Scott Lincoln (City of York, Paul Wilson) unfortunately bows out in the shot put qualification round with a best throw of 19.69m.