Callum Wilkinson walks away with England U23 Championship title to land British Team spot for Europeans

Former King Edward VI School pupil Callum Wilkinson was in top form at the England Athletics U23 Championships on Sunday, when he set a new competition record in the 10K race walk.

The Moulton athlete stopped the clock in a time of 40 minutes and 29.26 seconds to win the event, which doubled up as the European Trials, by a margin of more than 400 metres while setting the record.

The 22-year-old tweeted: “An honour to take the U23 national title and head toward Euro U23’s in winning form.”

The European Under-23 Championships take place in Sweden from July 11 and Wilkinson is set to be selected for the 20km race walk, having achieved all of the necessary conditions by winning the trials and achieving the qualifying time of one hour and 26 minutes.

Wilkinson achieved a new 20km race walk personal best time of 1:21:34 at the Podebrady Race Walking Permit Meeting in April this year, while then walking 1:24:54 at the European Race Walking Cup in Alytus in May to demonstrate strong form this season.

He will look to build on that next month while also emulating his IAAF World U20 Championship success of 2016 – winning over the shorter 10km distance.

* Meanwhile Stowmarket’s Emily Moyes finished second in the 3000m steeplechase trials to miss out on automatic selection for the U23 British squad.