Max Burgin, Keely Hodgkinson and Kane Elliott are among the young athletes hoping for medals in Gyor.

The second edition of European Athletics U18 Championships kicks off today (Thursday, July 5) in Gyor, Hungary with a 33-strong British team set to take on the best from the continent in the age-group.

World U18 800m leader Max Burgin, who clocked 1:47.50 over 800m in May to set a world age 15 800m record and a European U16 best, is among the team and begins his quest for gold in the 800m heats on Friday.

Keely Hodgkinson, Kane Elliott and Thomas Keen will also hope for medal honours in the 800m, 1500m and 3000m respectively, however, they will face highly competitive endurance fields.

Europe’s best young athletes from 50 nations will be in action over the four-day competition and Great Britain’s full team can be found here.

Day one preview (Thursday, July 5)

There are 15 British athletes involved on day one seeking progression into the latter stages of the competition.

Two athletes will be in final action on day one and they are Cambridge & Coleridge’s Keen and Rory Leonard (Morpeth) in the boys 3000m. The pair are ranked one and two in the European U18 rankings so far in 2018 so will go into the race with a fillip of confidence from their form this year. Their final goes at 19:32 UK time.

There is further British interest in the endurance events with Elise Thorner (Wells City Harriers) last up in the 2000m steeplechase heats, Leigh Harriers’ Hodgkinson in the girl’s 800m heats while Jacques Maurice (Harrogate Harriers) and Falkirk’s Elliott go in the 1500m heats.

Amy Hunt (Charnwood) and Cassie-Ann Pemberton (Birchfield) will race the girl’s 100m heats on Thursday morning, hoping to advance to the semi-finals later in the evening. Meanwhile, Natasha Harrison (Stockport) and Hannah Foster (Shaftesbury Barnet) kick off the action in the 400m heats at 10:10am UK time.

In the field, World U18 leader in the high jump Dominic Ogbechie (Highgate Harriers) who goes in the qualification pools around 16:40 (UK time).

Max Law (Havering) will go in javelin qualification, Lewis Byng (Stratford-upon-Avon) and George Hyde (West Cheshire) will target the final in the shot put while Jade Spencer-Smith (Harrow) takes on pole vault qualification.

All of the action from Gyor can be watched live on Eurosport 2 and on the European Athletics website. The timetable for each day can be found here and results here.