LAURA MUIR
GB
Age: 25
Event: 1500m
The middle-distance runner will only be on the start line of the 1500m in Berlin despite having hinted that she would go for the 800m-1500m double. Muir has yet to win any major international medals outdoors and so she will be desperate to change that over the next week-or-so.
Currently ranked number one in Europe over the distance, her closest challenger is GB teammate Laura Weightman who is over three seconds slower than the Scot this season.
ZHARNEL HUGHES
GB
Age: 23
Event: 100m
The Englishman is joint-equal fastest man in Europe this season having run 9.91 seconds and he has broken the 10-second barrier four times already this year. However, winning the European title will be no easy task with Frenchman Jimmy Vicaut also in good form and also running 9.91 earlier this season. They are the only two who have dipped under ten seconds and so, if all goes to form, will be battling it out for gold.
DAFNE SCHIPPERS
Netherlands
Age: 26
Event: 200m
The Dutchwoman has established herself as one of the very best 200m runners on the planet over the past few years, winning the world championships in both 2015 and 2017. She goes to Berlin as reigning European champion in both the 100m and the 200m but will face stiff competition from Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith, who has run the fastest 200m time of any European this season.
NAFISSATOU THIAM
Belgium
Age: 23
Event: Heptathlon
Thiam is a precocious talent in the heptathlon and is already World and Olympic champion. However, she is yet to win an outdoor European title but will head to Berlin as heavy favourite. There could be an intriguing battle for gold between the Belgian and Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson, who won her first major championship title earlier this year at the Commonwealth Games.
EILIDH DOYLE
GB
Age: 31
Event: 400m hurdles
The Perthshire athlete is a former European champion having won the title in 2014. She has had something of an up-and-down outdoor season with the highlight being her Commonwealth Games silver medal in April but that was then followed by a prolonged injury lay-off.
However, despite three months out of action, which saw her miss the British trials, Doyle is still ranked second in Europe, only one hundredth of a second behind Lea Sprunger of Switzerland so, if the Scot can rediscover something close to her best form, she is in with a realistic chance of regaining her title.
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