ATHLETICS: Tom Lancashire justified his selection for the European Championships with an impressive performance in the Diamond League meeting at Gateshead on Saturday.
The 25-year-old Bolton star ran a season’s best 3 minutes 34.87 to prove his international class in a world-class 1,500m field.
He finished one and a half seconds behind the winner, Olympic champion and this season’s number one, Kenyan Asbel Kiprop, in seventh place in a race involving five of the top 10 1,500m runners in the world this year.
It was a timely performance from Lancashire, showing he is back on track for challenging for European medals after a season hampered by illness and injury.
His time was well inside the European Championships A qualifying time of 3:36.2 which only he and British number one Andy Baddeley have made this season.
The race saw Lancashire gain revenge on the third member of the British team for the Europeans, Colin McCourt, who beat the Bolton Harrier from Bromley Cross at the British trials a fortnight ago. McCourt has a blistering sprint finish but was unable to keep ground with Lancashire and Baddeley in such a fast race.
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