Neil Gourley struck silver as Great Britain opened their medal account on the second day of the European indoor athletics championships in Istanbul.
Gourley finished a close second to Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the 1500m, while sprinter Daryll Neita (60m) and middle-distance runner Melissa Courtney-Bryant (3,000m) both collected bronzes.
The Olympic champion Ingebrigtsen held off Glasgow’s Gourley in the home straight to win in a new championship record of 3min 33.95sec. France’s Azeddine Habz took bronze, while Britain’s George Mills finished 11th after falling early on.
Gourley, who clocked 3mins 34.23secs, told BBC Sport: “[Jakob] is one of the best ever to do this, so it was always going to be really hard to come up against someone like that. I believed I could do it. I put myself in the right places and just didn’t quite have it. I got beaten by someone who is better and I’ve got to take it on the chin.”
Neita was among the favourites to win women’s 60m gold, but Switzerland’s Mujinga Kambundji triumphed in a new championship record of 7.00sec. Poland’s Ewa Swodboda took silver in 7.09sec, with Neita three hundredths of a second slower in third.
“It’s always amazing to bring a medal home, but I’m not particularly happy with this result,” said Neita. “I just feel I would have liked more from myself, but it’s a bronze medal and I’ve got to be grateful.”
Courtney-Bryant had earlier claimed Britain’s first medal of the event with bronze in the women’s 3,000m, finishing behind the German pair Hanna Klein and Konstanze Klosterhalfen in a time of 8min 41.19sec.
“I got myself in bit of a rubbish position at the start, but I said stay patient and be calm and just work my way up,” said Courtney-Bryant. “I know I’m in really good shape and I just had to push on.” Hannah Nuttall was fifth with a personal best of 8:46.30.
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In the pentathlon event, Belgium’s Nafissatou Thiam set a new world record of 5,500 points after edging a thrilling battle with Polish rival Adrianna Sulek, who also broke the previous world record by a point, finishing on 5,014 but settling for silver.
Laura Muir, chasing a fifth European indoor career gold, won her heat to reach the women’s 1,500m final on Sunday, where she will joined by compatriots Ellie Baker and Katie Snowden.
Elsewhere, Italy’s Zane Weir won the first gold of the championships in the men’s shot put. Portugal top the medals table with two golds after victories for Auriol Dongmo (women’s shot put) and Pedro Pichardo (men’s triple jump).
