British 10,000m runners Alice Goodall and Rory Leonard win European U23 titles to add to the 5000m victories earlier in the week from Charles Hicks and Megan Keith

British athletes completed the full house of distance running titles at the European Under-23 Championships in Espoo, Finland, on Sunday morning (July 16) when Rory Leonard took gold in the men’s 10,000m.

His victory came less than 24 hours after Alice Goodall won the women’s 10,000m, whereas earlier in the week the 5000m titles went to their team-mates Megan Keith and Charles Hicks.

Leonard ran 29:08.33 to beat Italy’s Francesco Guerra (29:11.86) and Spain’s Miguel Baidal (29:14.91). The Morpeth Harrier, who has been based at Oklahoma State University in recent years, surged clear of his rivals in the final mile and had time to celebrate in the home straight as he charged through the finish line wearing his trademark cap.

On Saturday afternoon in Espoo the women’s title went to Edinburgh athlete Goodall. With front-running tactics in temperatures of 24C, she led through halfway in 16:53 before going on to take gold in 33:16.45 after fighting off the stubborn resistance of Sara Nestola of Italy (33:17.51) as another Italian, Aurora Bado, took bronze (34:12.75).

READ MORE: Megan Keith and Charles Hicks win 5000m gold

Goodall said: “The race was stressful having someone on your shoulder until the final 100m, but it went how I wanted it to. The plan had been to keep it reserved for the first 5km and then pick it up lap by lap after that, which I did quite well. But I didn’t expect to have someone so close behind and was hoping my kick at the end would be enough to hold her off.”

There was British success on Saturday in the women’s 4x100m as well as Cassie-Ann Pemberton, Amy Hunt, Alyson Bell and Aleeya Sibbons struck gold in a championship record of 43.04 ahead of France and Switzerland.

Bell said: “We knew we were four quick girls and we get along so well. We’ve been putting in lots of practice so consistently over the years.”

Elsewhere, Mykolas Alekna of Lithuania won the men’s hammer with a championship record of 68.34m, whereas France enjoyed a gold rush on Saturday with victories in the men’s 110m hurdles from Sasha Zhoya in 13.31 (0.5), the women’s pole vault with Marie-Julie Bonnin clearing 4.50m and the men’s triple jump courtesy of Simon Gore as he leapt 16.40m (0.9).

There was also a championship record in the women’s 100m hurdles as Ditaji Kambundji of Switzerland clocked 12.68 (0.0).

Going into the final session of the championships, it means Britain tops the medals table with seven golds and 11 medals in total with victories coming courtesy of Hicks, Keith, Leonard, Goodall, the women’s 4x100m team plus Jeremiah Azu in the men’s 100m and Yemi Mary John in the 400m.