Great Britain & Northern Ireland are right in the mix for a top-three finish at the European Team Championships in Braunschweig after the men's 4x100m relay team rounded off day one with victory.
Despite taking a young and developing team to the events, the squad recorded six top-three finishes on Saturday to leave them in fourth place with 158.5 points, just 2.5 points adrift of France in third behind hosts Germany and Russia.
They had to wait until the final action of the day to taste a first win however, with the quartet of Richard Kilty, Harry Aikines-Aryeetey, James Ellington and Adam Gemili getting the baton home first in 38.51 seconds.
“This is a solid team and this is hopefully a team that will push for the British record,” said Kilty.
Olympic long jump champion Greg Rutherford was also forced to settle for second after recording a jump of 7.99m behind Christian Reif on 8.13m, some way short of his recent British record of 8.51m.
“I came here to win maximum points for the team so it’s still a disappointment in that way,” he said.
“I said this year I wanted to jump over eight metres in every single competition. It’s about picking myself up and jumping well again next week.”
Danny Talbot was another to finish second, this time in the 100m behind Jimmy Vicaut of France while Eilidh Child – winner of the 400m hurdles last year – lost out to Ukraine’s Hannah Ryzhikova in the closing stages.
Former decathlete Daniel Awde finished third in the 400m from the outside lane in 46.10 while Rick Yates matched the result in the men’s 400m hurdles.
© Sportsbeat 2014