It was so nice, Lyla did it twice! – Lyla Belshaw, Colchester Harriers seventeen-year-old middle-distance star, backed up her European Under-18 1,500m gold medal from last year with a brilliantly executed pair of races in the European Under-20 Championship in Tampere, Finland to strike 1,500m gold again. Thus, reinforcing her ranking as the number one under-20 1,500 metre female athlete in Europe.

The Heat

As with all championships, it is not just a case of running one race as fast as you can, a heat is needed to be successfully navigated first with race tactics being tested as well as running speed. In this case, it was the top four in each heat, plus the four fastest losers which progressed to the final. Interestingly, despite Lyla being top of the under-20 European rankings she was actually rock bottom of the under-twenty age group, being the youngest athlete in the field across both heats! This undoubtedly did put her at a disadvantage.

Lyla took care of the heat maturely. Staying out of trouble and remaining with the lead group until the final lap, she moved away from the field with Team GB compatriot Eleanor Strevens. Lyla was happy to take it ‘steady away’ in the home straight, knowing there is no value in getting caught up in a burn-up for the line in a heat. The result being a comfortable second placed finish behind Eleanor in 4:20.74, this was also the second fastest time across both heats. Job done and ‘powder kept dry’ for the final in two days’ time. Coach Dave Smith, Mum Tammy, and Lyla herself were all pleased with this outcome – Heats are nerve-wracking!

The Final

Onto the final, and obviously this would be a much tougher challenge. Lyla’s main competitor on paper was Sweden’s Carmen Cernjul. She had looked impressive and comfortable in winning her heat and with a PB only 1.5 seconds shy of Lyla’s (4:10.64 to 4:09.13) a close race was anticipated. An interesting fact about Cernjul is she was an international footballer for Sweden, before deciding to concentrate on athletics.

Lyla’s pre-race tactics were to remain in third or fourth place until the final lap and then move into second place before kicking hard with one hundred metres to go! As the starting gun sounded Lyla managed to quickly position behind her on the inside lane and into third place – an ideal start. There was a little bumping on the opening lap as you would expect in a European 1500m final and it was slightly unnerving when Lyla was clipped at the end of the first lap, which momentarily broke her stride. The leaders went through the first lap in 68 seconds, which is a reasonable pace. Lyla continued to remain in close contact with Cernjul who was just ahead.

With two laps to go Lyla was still in a great position running the shortest line on the inside of the track. It was heart in the mouth stuff again as Lyla was clipped once more with six hundred metres to go, but fortunately Lyla steadied and composed herself and no damage had been done!

With three hundred metres to go just two remained in the mix – Lyla and Cernjul. Lyla stuck with the pre-race tactics of not kicking too early by sitting behind the Swede, positioned perfectly and with the ability to react to anything.

With two hundred to go Lyla moved onto Cernjul’s shoulder and tested her to which the Swede responded. Sensing the Swede still had some fight left in her in her and knowing she should not kick too early, Lyla delayed the decisive move until the final one hundred metres when she hit the afterburners and moved clear into the home straight. Cernjul did not concede, and Lyla had to push hard down the home straight (running a 29.5 second last 200m) before crossing the finish line with a gap of around three metres to win with a sixty-four second last lap in 4:14.59! Tremendous racing! A nice bonus was to see fellow British athlete Isobel Jones finish with a bronze.

Again, Lyla executed the plan with superb tactics and displayed clarity of thought under pressure and did not panic after being clipped twice. She also displayed patience not to worry about seemingly being boxed in, knowing that athletes would fall away and gaps would appear (I know coach Dave was massively panicking about her being boxed in though!).

It was lovely to see Lyla at the club track night on the Tuesday after the race, taking photos with other club members and showing off her medal (and multiple spike marks to the legs!). After touching the medal, I executed a reasonably decent 3 x 3,000m (not at ‘Lyla pace’) which was definitely no coincidence. Being serious though, it must be wonderfully inspiring for all the junior athletes at the club to have the likes of not only Lyla, but Charlie Dobson and Lizzie Wellsted who have all obtained major championship medals in recent years. Long may it continue.

What is next for Lyla?

Lyla is now having a well-earned two-week break with a family holiday in the US before she does NOT step back onto the track again this season. It is going to be full focus on building for next season with some big targets in the pipeline. An uninterrupted winter training block would be perfect, especially after the injury disruption to this pre-season. Lyla truly hates cross country (!!) and time spent training and, in the gym, working on strength and conditioning is time better spent for her.

Early next year will see the indoor racing season kick-off and she would like to do some indoor racing with eyes being set on senior races much more now. In the longer-term Lyla’s next big goal will be to continue to build towards the World Under-20 Championships in Oregon next year, where she would like to medal. Throwing the Americans and the Africans (amongst others) into the mix makes this an entirely tougher challenge but with Europe conquered, the World is next. Although a long way off, thereafter, it would be the LA Olympics in 2028. In the near-future, Lyla will need to choose a university and then line up a coach which will be associated with her university location – this could be in the UK or the US. A big decision, but not one to dwell on for now. It is time to bask in the warm glow of current successes!