Jade O’Dowda turned her Birmingham bronze into Glasgow silver as she produced a determined final day of the heptathlon to claim her second senior medal for Team England.
The Oxford athlete went into the final day 49 points behind Northern Ireland’s Kate O’Connor, who eventually secured gold, but O’Dowda kept pushing to climb the standings and finish with a silver medal.
A season’s best in the javelin and a strong 800m performance helped seal the upgrade, although O’Dowda admitted the overall competition did not go entirely to plan.
“Coming into it I wanted to upgrade my medal and get as close as I could get to the gold,” she said. “I knew it was going to be hard because Kate’s an absolute warrior, so I’m super happy.
“I was happy with my hurdles and then everything else was slightly off. I was over the moon with shot put with how those conditions were so I can’t complain about that one, but everything else, probably other than the 800m, I felt just not quite there.”
Georgia Hunter Bell also moved one step closer to a medal after safely progressing through the women’s 800m semi-finals.
The London runner produced a composed performance to win her semi-final in a comfortable 1:59.88.
“It was a good race,” she said. “What I hoped happened, that someone would go out hard, which meant I didn’t have to.
“It was tough to find position but I wanted to hit 200m to go and be at the front so I think that was great. I’m really happy with how that went.
“The main thing was just making it through to the final. Every round is tough, so it’s about getting the job done one race at a time.”
Elise Thorner delivered another medal-winning moment for Team England as she claimed silver in the women’s 3000m steeplechase with a personal best of 9:05.45.
“I wouldn’t have predicted that,” Thorner said. “That was how I would want to race. Luckily it went out how I thought it would and that’s how I like to race.”
There were further medals for Team England as Ellis Kottas secured silver in the women’s 1500m T54 final with a time of 4:22.07, while Kevin Santos won bronze in the men’s 100m T47 final, clocking 10.85.