University of Bath-based high jumpers Tom Gale and Levern Spencer are heading to their first and fourth Olympic Games respectively this summer after securing their Tokyo 2020 places.
Gale, who set the Olympic qualifying standard back in February 2020, produced a first-time clearance of 2.24m to claim victory at this weekend’s Muller British Championships and confirm his place on the plane to Japan with Team GB.
“Proud to have confirmed my spot at Tokyo Olympics today,” Gale posted on Instagram. “Been a long and stressful year but I wanna say a huge thank you to my team for the work and getting me to this point.”
Training partner Spencer, who is also coached by Denis Doyle at the Team Bath Sports Training Village, will be competing in Tokyo too after being confirmed in the St Lucia squad for the Games.
Reigning Commonwealth champion Spencer has previously competed at Beijing 2008, London 2012 and Rio 2016, where she finished sixth, and is targeting a medal in Tokyo after switching her training base to Team Bath.
“It’s really an honour to again have the opportunity to represent my country at this prestigious event,” she said. “This opportunity is made even more special by the many obstacles and challenges that Covid threw my way over the last year and a few months.
“I started off my career hoping to make it to one Olympics and now I am at four.”
Visit www.teambath.com/athletics to find out more about the athletics programme at the University of Bath.
Courtesy of the Team Bath Press Office at Matchtight
