 | The European Indoors are live on BBC Two on Sunday 6 March at 1600
(all times GMT) |
British veteran John Mayock brought the curtain down on his athletics career in sparkling style with a European Indoor 3,000m silver in Madrid on Saturday. The 34-year-old clocked a season's best seven minutes 51.46 seconds to finish runner-up to Ireland's Alistair Cragg, who won the gold in 7:46.32.
Spain's Reyes Estevez took bronze in 7: 51.65. Young Briton Mohammed Farah was sixth in a personal best of 7:54.08.
Mayock said: "It's been fun but now it's time for me to hang up my spikes."
The Yorkshireman was making his fifth appearance in the championships.
He first won the silver medal 13 years ago and has since collected gold in 1998 and also picked up two bronzes along the way for good measure.
He added: "That's not bad for an old man, is it?"
Mayock will make his final international appearance in the world cross country championships.
He is keen to concentrate on his work for the Sports Council for Wales and to spend more time with his family.
Earlier, David Gillick won the men's 400m to set Ireland up for a golden night in the Spanish capital.
Gillick crossed the line in a time of 46.30, while Britain's Dale Garland finished sixth in 47.59.
Delighted Gillick, who just edged home favourite David Canal, said: "There is a good few Irish here and this is great for them.
"I thought if I could be patient I could reel Canal in and that's pretty much how it went.
"But I felt confident that I would be faster over the last 200m and I was. It is absolutely amazing. Absolutely unbelievable."
Garland was making his international debut and, despite finishing last, was rightly encouraged by his result.
"I really had to work hard over the fist 200m to get into position 10m or so back," he said.
"I really thought I could attack from there, but the first 200m really took it out of me, more than I thought. But I learned a lot and enjoyed it and now I have to build on it."
Oxford athlete Nathan Douglas also missed out on medal but was similarly inspired by his performance in the triple jump final, when he added 13 centimetres to his lifetime best with a leap of 16.89m.
But there was disappointment for Helen Clitheroe, who was edged into fourth place in the women's 1500m final in controversial circumstances.
Clitheroe was impeded in the closing stages by Hind Dehiba of France but her appeal against the result failed.
Dehiba took the bronze in 4:07.20, while Clitheroe clocked 4:07.54.
The race was won by Elena Iagar in 4:03.09 and her Romanian compatriat Corina Dumbravean claimed silver in 4:05.88.
But there was good news for Britain's Chris Lambert and Tim Abeyie who stormed into Sunday's final of the men's 200m with personal best performances in qualifying.
Lambert followed up his PB of 20.77 in Saturday's opening heats with another PB of 20.73 to win his semi-final.
"I had to put a bit in - I didn't start as well as I'd have liked but it's good to be running well. I definitely have a chance of a title," the Londoner said.
Abeyie, who set a PB of 20.92 in the heats, was second in his semi in 20.93.
"I'm really pleased with how I am running and now I want to see what I can do in the final," he said.
Scotland's fast-improving Allan Scott also reached Sunday's semi finals of the men's 60m hurdles with a blistering run of 7.69, but Andy Turner failed to make it through.
Turner stumbled over the final hurdle and finished last in his heat in a time of 7.90.
In the women's 60m hurdles, Derval O'Rourke smashed the Republic of Ireland record and set a new PB when she finished second in her heat in 8.02 to go through to Sunday's semi-finals.
Britain's Diane Allahgreen, the 1998 bronze medallist, proved she is getting back to her best when she finished third to also go through in a time of 8.05secs.
Newly-crowned AAA champion Sarah Claxton, who has twice broken Allahgreen's British record this season, made sure she joined them when she clocked 8.06 to finish third in her heat.
In the morning session, British long jumper Chris Tomlinson saw his medal hopes dashed when his qualifying leap of 7.85m left him 3cms short of making Sunday's final.
It was a blow for the 23-year-old, who was considered a genuine medal prospect despite still recovering from an abductor tear in his stomach.
Fellow Britons long jumper Nathan Morgan and high jumper Ben Challenger also failed to progress.
Morgan, recently recovered from injury, found himself back in medical care when he damaged his heel during his first-round jump of 7.68m and was forced to retire.
Challenger equalled his season's best of 2.27m to earn a share of 11th place - but eight made the qualifying standard of 2.30m and they went through.
MMIX
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