British athletes Marc Austin and Grant Sheldon both won medals in the junior men's World Championship race in Hyde Park this morning, although they were narrowly beaten to the finishing line in a final sprint by Dorian Coninx of France.
All three medallists ran sub 15-minute five kilometre run splits, and provided crowds with a thrilling sprint to the end, with Coninx just holding off Austin and Sheldon to finish in 51:57mins
Austin followed three seconds later to claim silver, followed by Sheldon just one second later who took bronze. Other Brits finishing inside the top ten were Gordon Benson, who came fifth in 52:25mins, and Morgan Davies, who came eighth in 52:32mins.
“When you go and see all the guys on the podium, I’m just happy I get to go back to the hotel with a medal,” said Austin. “Me and Grant and Gordon have been training together for a few years, It’s a really strong set up. We’ve got a really strong team.”
This strong showing by the British junior men follows a silver medal won by Georgia Taylor-Brown in the junior women's race earlier today.
The U23 finals will take place this afternoon (12 September), with the women's race starting at midday and the men's race at 3pm.