Great Britain and Northern Ireland missed out on a top-three finish at the European Team Championships in Braunschweig, finishing fifth on a day that saw 110m hurdler William Sharman run the fastest British time in 12 years.
The team headed into day two just 2.5 points adrift of France in third spot after the men’s 4x100m relay quartet picked up Britain’s first victory of the competition.
But despite some solid performances, the team was unable to pick up another victory on Sunday, eventually finishing on 281.5 points behind overall winners Germany.
Sharman was one of the stand out performers, posting 13.21seconds in the 110m hurdles to move third on the UK all-time list behind Colin Jackson and Tony Jarrett.
It was the fastest time by a Brit since 2002 but he just missed out on the win in a dip finish, Russia’s Sergey Shubenkov pipping him by 0.01seconds.
"I’ve been training through the winter instead of sitting at home injured,” explained Sharman on why he’s been performing so well at this relatively early stage of the season.
“It’s made a big difference doing an indoor season. I’m much further on. Normally I would only have started training a few months ago for the hurdles.”
Third-place finishes also went to James Ellington and Anyika Onuora in the respective 200m races while the men’s and women’s 4x400m team finished fourth.
It was a similar result for triple jumper Phillips Idowu who was donning a GB vest for the first time since London 2012.
While team captain and former world silver medallist Hannah England finished fifth in 4:16.88 minutes.
“I don’t regret going for that first or second place but the last 50m was pretty disappointing,” said England, who led at the bell.
“Hopefully that sort of race will bring me on for other races although I would have liked to have got more points.”
© Sportsbeat 2014