Hudson-Smith triumphs in 400m in incredible night of athletics action

Matthew Hudson-Smith spearheaded Great Britain on day nine at the European Championships by winning gold in the 400m as his compatriots won a further three medals on the track and a silver in diving.

The Commonwealth champion sprinted to an incredible 44.76s in the final to claim gold after smashing the championship record in the semi-finals.

Katarina Johnson-Thompson’s incredible year in heptathlon continued by earning a well-deserved silver.

400m hurdler Meghan Beesley shocked the packed Berlin Olympiastadion by winning bronze ahead of compatriot Eilidh Doyle.

And Jake Wightman put the icing on the cake by winning bronze in the men’s 1500m with an unbelievable sprint finish.

Earlier, Olympic champions Chris Mears and Jake Laugher took silver in the men’s synchronised 3m springboard – Laugher’s third medal of the competition.

After the ninth day in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Berlin – Britain remain second in the medal table with 54 medals in total.

In the race of the day - Matthew Hudson-Smith struck gold in the men’s 400m with an incredible 44.78s run to hold off the chasing pack.

The now two-time European champion was just shy of Iwan Thomas’ 21 year record of 44.36s, but smashed the championship record in the semi-finals with a 44.52s run.

After the energy sapping incredible feat, Hudson-Smith joked: “I'm never doing that again.

“I got to 350m, I've never really had lactic before, but I was like 'what is this', I was swimming - that's why I was on the floor for so long.

“It's a good feeling. The time doesn't matter, that's for the future. It was about winning and going on in the future.

“Times will come, I went for it and tried something new. That lactic was something different.”

Katarina Johnson-Thompson claimed an emphatic silver medal in the women’s heptathlon after excelling in the high jump, 100m, 200m and 800m events.

Nafi Thiam proved to be an unstoppable force in the women’s heptathlon despite the best efforts of Johnson-Thompson to push the Belgian to the final 800m event.

The Belgian Olympic and world champion, who is unbeaten in the last two years, was pushed hard to the end, but pipped the Liverpool athlete to top the podium by 57 points with a score of 6817 points.

Team-mate Meghan Beesley saved her best individual performance to date for the European Championships to win bronze in the women's 400m hurdles.

The Briton clinched the medal from lane one, while Eilidh Doyle finished in eight as Switzerland's Lea Sprunger taking gold in a tight sprint finish.

She said: “I'm just so shocked. I kept thinking 'just keep running to the finish line’.

“Yeah, I'm just in shock I think.

“Before the race I looked at people who had run well in lane one and just went for it.”

Commonwealth bronze medallist Jake Wightman topped off an incredible night of British athletics in Berlin by winning bronze in the men’s 1500m.

Wightman said: “That was the most under pressure I have been at a major championships, you have no idea what’s going to happen and the way everyone was running meant seven or eight of us could have won that.

“If you re-ran that race 100 times there would be different outcomes, but I am glad it turned out that way.

“Every championship that I do, my experience of what I need to do to get myself in the best position and be in contention for those medals is getting stronger.

“I am glad that going into the world championships I am so successful looking forward to Doha and Tokyo.”

Charlie Grice and Chris O’Hare finished fifth and ninth respectively in a stunning final push for the line.

Britain’s Adelle Tracey narrowly missed out on bronze in the women’s 800m final as

Lynsey Sharp and Shelayna Oskan-Clarke finished in sixth and eighth respectively.

World Indoor champion Andrew Pozzi showed signs of promise in his return to injury to finish sixth in the 110m hurdles.

Morgan Lake admitted to having a disappointing evening after recording 1.91m to finish seventh in the women’s high jump final, while Naomi Ogbeta finished 12th in the women’s triple jump.