Woodford Green Essex Ladies sprint hurdles siblings Cindy Sember and Tiffany Porter produced a sister act of their own at the European Indoor Athletics Championships in Poland on Sunday.
Sember, 26, got the better of Porter, 33, in the women's 60m final as her near-perfect run deservedly secured her first senior medal, a silver, in a Great Britain & Northern Ireland vest in a personal best equalling 7.89secs. It was her fastest time since 2017.
Porter added the bronze medal to the silver she won at the 2011 championships in Paris after edging past Finland’s Nooralotta Neziri by one hundredth of a second in 7.92.
Red-hot favourite from the Netherlands, Nadine Visser led from the gun and easily retained her mantle in a world leading 7.77.
Silver was certainly a well-deserved prize for US-born Sember who began her indoor season late after overcoming Achilles problems.
"I’m so happy to be here and I’m so happy that I could do it alongside my sister," Sember said. "We’ve both been through a lot so it’s amazing to be medalling.
"It’s given me a lot of confidence. I didn’t think I would be able to do the indoors with some things going on, so now that I’ve been able to match my PB, I think there’s a lot more in store and I’m super excited."
Meanwhile Porter believes her form from the Euro indoors will inspire her to do even better in the forthcoming summer outdoor season over 100m hurdles and to qualify for the delayed Tokyo Olympics.
"It’s been a huge journey and I’m so pleased and I’m so grateful to be back," she said. "I’m running well. The first two rounds weren’t where I wanted to be, but I was like ‘you know what Tiffany, you’ve been here before, just execute a better race in the final, medals aren’t given in the first two rounds'.
"I think it’s going to be helpful for me because it gives me an extra year to come back from having my daughter, Chidera. We’re just going to keep building on from this and do better in the outdoor season."
Overall Team GB & NI won an excellent tally of 12 medals (2 golds, 4 silvers and 6 bronze) to finish third in the overall table behind table toppers Holland, who claimed 4 golds, and Portugal.
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