Hunt, champion of 100m and 200m, fulfills her wish: 'I want it all'
Britain's Amy Hunt completed a 100m and 200m double at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham, while Spain's Jaël Bestué finished seventh in the 200m.
Intelligence analysis by Llama
European Championships in Birmingham saw Britain's Amy Hunt complete a sprint double, declaring 'I want it all' after winning both the 100m and 200m. Spain's Jaël Bestué, balancing medical studies with athletics, finished seventh but left satisfied.
A British runner named Amy Hunt, who went to school at Cambridge, won two big races at the European track meet in Birmingham and shouted 'I want it all.' A Spanish runner named Jaël, who is also studying to be a doctor, came in seventh but felt happy because she finally believed she could race with the best.
Analysis
Amy Hunt's Cambridge education
Amy Hunt's dual life as student and elite sprinter crystallized at Cambridge, where she studied English Philology. Each year during her studies she questioned whether to continue, but she finished the degree after a fifth career 200m race produced a world under-18 record that made her recognizable on campus. That combination of academic commitment and competitive momentum, according to the article, fed into her arrival in Birmingham, where she declared "I want it all," borrowing the High School Musical refrain, and backed it up by winning both the 100m and 200m European titles, defeating established British sprint star Dina Asher-Smith along the way. The fact that Hunt can manage a demanding academic program and produce continental gold medals complicates the conventional notion that elite sprinting requires an either-or choice between education and athletics.
Jaël Bestué's medical school path
Bestué, 25, from Sant Cugat near Barcelona, is following a parallel path. She is training to become a doctor while maintaining elite-level sprinting, which forces her to train only once a day and spend many mornings on her feet in clinical settings. Her coach, Panter, has had to adapt afternoon sessions to whatever energy she brings from the hospital, a logistical arrangement that explains both her ceiling and her consistency. Her 200m personal best of 22.19 seconds, set last year in Madrid, placed her among the world's best, but the 2026 championships once again exposed the same weakness: she loses positions in the home straight after a strong bend. Finishing seventh in 22.69s was the same place she ended in Rome two years ago, but Bestué told the paper she leaves Birmingham without self-reproach for the first time, having finally believed she could fight for medals.
Rhasidat Adeleke's 22.28s
The most striking supporting result was Rhasidat Adeleke's 22.28s, a new Irish national record and the first time an Irish woman had run a 200m European final. The 23-year-old, just one hundredth off Dina Asher-Smith's 2019 world champion time, relegated the British veteran to bronze and signaled Ireland's emergence on the European sprinting map. The result matters because it came in a race featuring two of Britain's biggest names, Hunt and Asher-Smith, with the Irish athlete splitting them. Bestué still has the 4x100m relay to contest, where Spain will be without Esperança Cladera, but for the individual sprints the Birmingham weekend confirmed that the European sprinting hierarchy is in transition: an untested British dual-meet champion, a 23-year-old Irish record-holder, and a still-developing Spanish sprinter who is also training to be a doctor.
Key points
- Britain's Amy Hunt won both the 100m and 200m at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham
- Spain's Jaël Bestué finished seventh in the 200m (22.69s) but left satisfied with her performance
- Ireland's Rhasidat Adeleke set a national record of 22.28s to take silver, the first Irish woman in a European 200m final
- Britain's Dina Asher-Smith, the 2019 world champion, took bronze behind the Irish runner
- Bestué, 25, balances medical studies with athletics and still has the 4x100m relay to contest
Bestué's satisfaction after Birmingham suggests Spain's sprinting program has a credible individual contender heading into future championships, and her medical school path shows the sport can accommodate serious dual-career ambitions. Hunt's double at 25 indicates British sprinting depth extends well beyond Asher-Smith, while Adeleke's Irish record points to a broader acceleration of female sprinting standards across the continent.
Bestué's recurring weakness in the home straight, despite improved curve work, indicates a technical ceiling that has now cost her positions in two consecutive European finals. The absence of Esperança Cladera from Spain's 4x100m relay also reduces team medal chances, and Asher-Smith's bronze behind the Irish athlete suggests the established British sprint order is being disrupted just as a new global generation emerges.
