Athletics: Last-gasp win clinches European discus place for Eden Francis

Eden Francis secured a last-gasp victory in the women's discus event at the Aviva England Under-23 Championships at Bedford on Saturday.

The Leicester athlete, who now competes for Birchfield Harriers, trailed Jade Nicholls going into the final round but dug deep to snatch victory from Nicholls' grasp. Francis won with her sixth and final effort of 54.90m to edge out Nicholls (Shaftesbury), who threw a 54.27m personal best in her final round to take the lead.

The last-gasp win for Francis secures her place in the European Under-23 Championships in Lithuania next month.

A month ago, Francis set an impressive personal best of 59.27m.

Leicester athlete Lloyd Gumbs, who now races for Shaftesbury Barnet, took the 400m hurdles in a brilliant personal best.

Gumbs clocked an impressive 50.36sec for victory, almost a second quicker than his previous best and well inside the 50.70sec European qualifying standard already achieved by runner-up Toby Ulm (Swindon) in 50.69 and bronze medalist Tom Burton (Tamworth) in 51.10.

Gumbs said: "I didn't know I could run that quickly. I knew it was going to be tough for me to make the team and this is just unbelievable.

"It's my first GB vest. I've always fallen short of the standard, but I've made it."

Leicester's Fiona McGorum took second place in the 5k walk at Bedford in a time of 29min 28sec.