Loughborough College athletes Sophie Hahn MBE and Thomas Young between them contributed twenty five per cent of Britain’s gold medals at the World Para Athletics European Championships.
With Sophie completing a sprint hat-trick and a double victory for Thomas, the College sport students helped Britain end the 2018 competition in Berlin with 20 gold medals and 50 in total.
Thomas, 18, added a T38 100m title in 11.66 to the 200m he had won the previous day. “It’s unbelievable. Before I came here, I really wanted the double, but I knew it was going to be hard work, so I had to train really hard and I have achieved what I wanted to at my debut Championships.”
Sophie claimed a new European Championship record and gold in the T38 100m, with team-mate and former Loughborough College student Olivia Breen taking bronze. After a second victory in the 200m, glory in the young sprinter’s third outing completed the hat-trick.
The 4x100m universal relay saw two male and two female athletes per nation compete in the new event, which featured a mixture of disabilities. Zac Shaw (T12), Laura Sugar (T44), Sophie and Nathan Maguire (T54) combined to clock 48.73 and take Britain’s tally to 20 on the final day in Germany.
Sophie said:"I'm so happy, I've worked so hard to be able to get to this position and be able to win three gold medals. France were narrowly in the lead so I was like 'you're not having this'.
"We have got such a strong team, we have got lots of young talent, and it is very exciting for Tokyo because we have got such a big and such a strong and team.
"And to finish with the team means a lot, we're hungry to have more success at European Championships and we want to be able to show the world what we can do."
Poland topped the medals table with 26 golds and 61 medals in total while Ukraine were close behind Britain with 19 golds and 49 medals.