http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/athletics/4321589.stm
British veteran John Mayock brought the curtain down on his athletics
career in sparkling style with a European Indoor 3,000m silver in
Madrid on Saturday.
The 34-year-old clocked a season's best seven minutes 51.46 seconds to
finish runner-up to Ireland's Alistair Cragg, who won the gold in
7:46.32.
Spain's Reyes Estevez took bronze in 7: 51.65. Young Briton Mohammed
Farah was sixth in a personal best of 7:54.08.
Mayock said: "It's been fun but now it's time for me to hang up my spikes."
The Yorkshireman was making his fifth appearance in the championships.
He first won the silver medal 13 years ago and has since collected
gold in 1998 and also picked up two bronzes along the way for good
measure.
He added: "That's not bad for an old man, is it?"
Earlier, David Gillick won the men's 400m to set Ireland up for a
golden night in the Spanish capital.
Double gold for Irish in Madrid
Gillick crossed the line in a time of 46.30, while Britain's Dale
Garland finished sixth in 47.59.
Delighted Gillick, who just edged home favourite David Canal, said:
"There is a good few Irish here and this is great for them.
"I thought if I could be patient I could reel Canal in and that's
pretty much how it went.
"But I felt confident that I would be faster over the last 200m and I
was. It is absolutely amazing. Absolutely unbelievable."
Garland was making his international debut and, despite finishing
last, was rightly encouraged by his result.
Photo gallery: More pictures from Madrid
"I really had to work hard over the fist 200m to get into position 10m
or so back," he said.
"I really thought I could attack from there, but the first 200m really
took it out of me, more than I thought. But I learned a lot and
enjoyed it and now I have to build on it."
Oxford athlete Nathan Douglas also missed out on medal but was
similarly inspired by his performance in the triple jump final, when
he added 13 centimetres to his lifetime best with a leap of 16.89m.
But there was disappointment for Helen Clitheroe, who was edged into
fourth place in the women's 1500m final in controversial
circumstances.
Clitheroe was impeded in the closing stages by Hind Dehiba of France
but her appeal against the result failed.
Dehiba took the bronze in 4:07.20, while Clitheroe clocked 4:07.54.
The race was won by Elena Iagar in 4:03.09 and her Romanian compatriat
Corina Dumbravean claimed silver in 4:05.88.
Photo gallery: see more pictures from Madrid
But there was good news for Britain's Chris Lambert and Tim Abeyie who
stormed into Sunday's final of the men's 200m with personal best
performances in qualifying.
Lambert followed up his PB of 20.77 in Saturday's opening heats with
another PB of 20.73 to win his semi-final.
"I had to put a bit in - I didn't start as well as I'd have liked but
it's good to be running well. I definitely have a chance of a title,"
the Londoner said.
Abeyie, who set a PB of 20.92 in the heats, was second in his semi in 20.93.
"I'm really pleased with how I am running and now I want to see what I
can do in the final," he said.
Scotland's fast-improving Allan Scott also reached Sunday's semi
finals of the men's 60m hurdles with a blistering run of 7.69, but
Andy Turner failed to make it through.
Turner stumbled over the final hurdle and finished last in his heat in
a time of 7.90.
In the women's 60m hurdles, Derval O'Rourke smashed the Republic of
Ireland record and set a new PB when she finished second in her heat
in 8.02 to go through to Sunday's semi-finals.
Britain's Diane Allahgreen, the 1998 bronze medallist, proved she is
getting back to her best when she finished third to also go through in
a time of 8.05secs.
Newly-crowned AAA champion Sarah Claxton, who has twice broken
Allahgreen's British record this season, made sure she joined them
when she clocked 8.06 to finish third in her heat.
In the morning session, British long jumper Chris Tomlinson saw his
medal hopes dashed when his qualifying leap of 7.85m left him 3cms
short of making Sunday's final.
It was a blow for the 23-year-old, who was considered a genuine medal
prospect despite still recovering from an abductor tear in his
stomach.
Fellow Britons long jumper Nathan Morgan and high jumper Ben
Challenger also failed to progress.
Morgan, recently recovered from injury, found himself back in medical
care when he damaged his heel during his first-round jump of 7.68m and
was forced to retire.
Challenger equalled his season's best of 2.27m to earn a share of 11th
place - but eight made the qualifying standard of 2.30m and they went
through.
Results
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/athletics/statistics/default.stm
ENDS
