Eagles' Gil-Echevarria set to run for Team Spain at European U-23 championships...

TALLINN, Estonia—Eastern Washington University steeplechaser Paula Gil-Echevarria (left/photo by Paul Merca) will compete for Team Spain at the European Under-23 Championships that begin Thursday at Kadriorg Stadium.

Gil-Echevarria, who finished third for the Eagles at the Big Sky Championships last May in Cheney, will compete in heat 2 of the women’s 3000 steeplechase, which begins at 4:10 pm in Tallinn (6:10 am in Seattle).

The top five from each of the two heats plus the next five fastest will advance to Saturday’s final, which is expected to be contested at 5:22 pm Saturday afternoon (7:22 am in Seattle).

She has a season best of 10:21.99 set at the NCAA West Regionals in Austin, and a personal best of 10:17.17 set at last year’s IAAF world junior championships in Eugene.  Gil-Echevarria was recently second in the Spanish junior championships in Tarragona, Spain, running 10:39.93.

Here is a video of her, courtesy thewangconnection.com:

The start lists for the European Athletics Under-23 championships is available here, and the meet’s home page is available here.

You can watch the European Under-23 championships live online via this Eurovisionsports.tv link.