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European Championships Munich 2022: GB's Jake Heyward wins silver and Eilish McColgan bronze

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Media caption,

Watch: GB's Heyward wins silver in men's 1500m final

Great Britain's Jake Heyward won silver in the 1500m and Eilish McColgan took bronze in the 5,000m at the European Championships in Munich.

Jazmin Sawyers also won a dramatic long jump bronze with her final leap.

McColgan's second medal of the games saw her finish behind Germany's Konstanze Klosterhalfen and Turkey's 10,000m champion Yasemin Can.

A late burst from Heyward saw him finish second to Norwegian favourite Jakob Ingebrigtsen.

It was a fine run from Olympic champion Ingebrigtsen, 21, who controlled the race from the front and clocked a championship record of three minutes 32.76 seconds on his way to repeating the 1500m-5,000m European double he achieved as a 17-year-old in Berlin in 2018.

Welsh middle-distance runner Heyward, who was fifth at the bell, accelerated on the final bend to pass Spain's Mario Garcia, who took bronze.

Britain's fast-finishing Matthew Stonier came home in fifth, while Neil Gourley finished eighth.

"I really wanted to come into these championships and get a medal," said Heyward who finished fifth at the Commonwealth Games.

"I'll take silver. I'm disappointed I could not push Jakob further. I felt pretty controlled most of the way. You just know as an athlete that I did not have the pop I had last week in Birmingham.

"My chest wasn't good. I've been pretty sick to be honest, so I'll take that."

McColgan adds to her medal collection

McColgan, 31, won 10,000m gold and 5,000m silver at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham after finishing in the top 11 of both events at the World Championships.

Despite appearing fatigued from her efforts in Monday's 10,000m final she clung on to home favourite Klosterhalfen and Can until the closing stages of the race.

Media caption,

Watch: GB's Eilish McColgan wins bronze in women's 5,000m final

Having opened a considerable gap over the rest of the field, it ensured a podium place was never in doubt and capped a superb season for the Scot..

"I was so tired," McColgan told BBC Sport.

"I don't know how I made it to the finish. I am so happy to come and win another medal. Those two girls were so strong in the middle section. To win another medal, I am lost for words. I could not do any more.

"I came into this year with only one outdoor medal and now I have collected another four. It is mad. I cannot believe it - this will be a year I will not forget for a very long time."

While McColgan's medal haul has increased significantly over the last few weeks, Sawyers' last major medal came in the 2016 European Championships in Amsterdam, when she took silver.

Media caption,

Watch: GB's Jazmin Sawyers wins bronze in the women's long jump final

And she was delighted by the last-gasp way in which she ended her wait for another, delivering a jump of 6.80m to pip Ukraine's Maryna Bekh-Romanchuk to bronze.

Serbia's Ivana Vuleta took gold with a jump of 7.06m ahead of Germany's current world and Olympic champion Malaika Mihambo, who lost out by three centimetres.

"I knew I was good enough to get a medal. I knew I had it in me," Sawyers said.

"I was stood at the top of the runway on that last jump thinking 'you can not leave here without a medal'."

Asher-Smith leads the way for British sprinters

Media caption,

'If it was a men's issue we'd have a million different ways to combat things'

Earlier on Thursday, Dina Asher-Smith cruised into the final of the women's 200m.

The defending champion, who is looking to add to her collection of medals in major championships, powered clear on the bend and clocked 22.53 after easing down in the final 20 metres.

Fellow Briton Jodie Williams also qualified for Friday's final (21:22 BST), finishing second in her semi-final after producing a season's best of 22.92 in the afternoon heats.

British trio Zharnel Hughes, Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake, Charles Dobson all advanced into the final of the men's 200m on Friday (20:20).

Hughes and Dobson both comfortably won their races, while Mitchell-Blake was made to work for his berth in the final as he finished behind Italy's Filippo Tortu in the third semi-final on Thursday evening.

Image source, BBC Sport
Image caption,

Host nation Germany lead the medal table with 15 golds and 34 medals in total, with Great Britain fourth on 10 golds and 31 medals

Image source, Alamy
Image source, Alamy

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