Conrad Williams believes Great Britain sent out a message to the rest of Europe, as they stormed to indoor 4x400m relay victory at the season-opening Sainsbury's Glasgow International Match.
Williams, along with teammates Jarryd Dunn, Richard Buck, and Rabah Yousif, claimed victory in 3:08.90 minutes – 3.52 seconds quicker than Scotland in second and more than four seconds clear of Germany in third.
It was the 32-year-old's second medal of the day after he took silver in the 400m, narrowly missing out to Scotland’s Jamie Bowie.
And, with March’s European Indoor Athletics Championships in Prague fast approaching, Williams believes the team showed exactly what they are about.
“We wanted to win that race, as this is our European team and we want to send a message to everyone else. Come March 9th, we’ll be ready to roll,” he said.
“The guys look up to me to set them up, and I can’t let them down as you’ve got three guys waiting to run.
“For me it was all about executing another race. I came here for two good races and I got that. So I’m very happy.”
There was disappointment elsewhere for Great Britain as indoor 60m world champion Richard Kilty was disqualified, and long jumper Chris Tomlinson saw his indoor season come to an end after tearing his hamstring on his first jump.
The 33-year-old still managed to take silver with the leap, but it was small consolation at the start of a busy season.
“I’m very disappointed,” he said. “Training was going well, I was doing PBs and lifting good weights.
“I came out here and just the first jump on take-off my hamstring tore. It’s a shame but it’s the way it goes and you’ve got to move on.
“I’ve just got to deal with it. You’ve got to man up and get on with it.”
Britain ended the meet in joint-second position, level with France and narrowly losing out by just a point to Germany in the overall standings.
However, there was still plenty to cheer as the women's 4x400m relay team of Emily Diamond, Kelly Massey, Shelayna Oskan-Clarke and Seren Bundy-Davies scored a comprehensive win in their race.
Massey and Oskan-Clarke also made the podium earlier in the day with the former taking gold in the 400m ahead of France's Marie Gayot while the latter was third in the 800m after being pipped to the line by Germany's Christina Hering.
Elsewhere there was gold in the 1500m for Jess Judd, who ran a personal-best time of 4:14.53 and finished ahead of France's Claire Perraux.
“I've definitely got the love for athletics back. I can't believe it, I'm really really happy with that result,” said the 20-year-old.
“My aim was to push on in the last few hundred metres, I got tired running the 800m the same way and always tiring in the last 200m.
“I'm so happy I had the strength because I have worked really hard.”
Chris Kandu topped the podium in the high jump competition with a personal best of 2.23m, while in the women’s long jump Commonwealth silver medallist Jazmin Sawyers took bronze.
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