At the British trials for the European U18 Championships in Cardiff, young sprinter Ethan Heggarty stormed to victory in the 200m in 20.51 (+2.0), an outstanding performance that lifts him to second on the all-time British U18 rankings. Now the fastest European and world U18 athlete this year, Heggarty will head to the European U18 Championships as the overwhelming favourite.
Just a year ago, Ethan Heggarty’s personal best over 200m stood at 21.70. However, since the start of the 2026 season, the British sprinter has produced one outstanding performance after another. Back in May, he claimed the Yorkshire Championships title in 21.16, already well inside the European qualifying standard, although the mark could not be ratified because the meeting was not World Athletics certified.
A week later in Loughborough, he immediately confirmed his potential by clocking an impressive 20.95 against older opposition, becoming one of the few U18 athletes to break the 21-second barrier this season.
But the best was still to come. At the British trials in Cardiff, Heggarty raised the bar once again, producing an excellent 20.81 in the heats to hint at something truly special in the final.
He duly delivered, winning the final in 20.51 with the maximum legal tailwind of +2.0m/s. In doing so, he slashed three tenths of a second off his personal best and recorded the second-fastest performance ever by a British U18 athlete, which also ranks as the second-fastest European U18 performance in history. Only Thomas Somers, who ran 20.37 in 2014, has gone quicker at this age. Heggarty therefore moves ahead of Jake Odey-Jordan (20.55 in 2024), another outstanding British sprint talent who had previously occupied second place.
The new king of European U18 sprinting
Beyond its historical significance, the performance completely reshapes the outlook ahead of the European U18 Championships, which will take place in just under a month’s time (16–19 July in Rieti, Italy).
With his 20.51, Ethan Heggarty now sits comfortably at the top of the European U18 rankings for 2026. His nearest challenger, fellow British athlete Bronson Hearn-Smith, has run 20.95, almost half a second slower—a huge margin over a distance as short as 200 metres. Behind them, no other European U18 athlete has broken the 21-second barrier, with Slovakia’s Timotej Nemček sitting third on the rankings with 21.05.
On the global stage, the picture is equally impressive. Heggarty now owns the fastest U18 performance in the world this season, ahead of Bahamian sprinter Eagan Neely (20.63) and several highly-rated American athletes. Barring any setbacks, he will therefore head to the European U18 Championships as the clear favourite. His advantage on paper is rarely seen at this level of competition and suggests there could yet be another landmark performance to come if conditions are favourable, along with what could be the first major title of his career.
