Three golds for Britain on day three of the European U20 Champs

Lyla Belshaw in the women’s 1500m, Charlotte Henrich in the women’s 400m and Rafferty Mirfin in a controversial men’s 800m all enjoy victories on Saturday in Tampere

British junior athletes enjoyed a hat-trick of wins on the track on the penultimate day of the European Under-20 Championships in Tampere, Finland, on Saturday (Aug 9).

Lyla Belshaw struck gold in the women’s 1500m with GB team-mate Rafferty Mirfin taking bronze. Charlotte Henrich won the women’s 400m with a powerful performance over one lap. Mirfin took victory in the men’s 800m but only after GB team-mate Will Rabjohns, who was first over the line, was disqualified for running on the inside of the track down the back straight on the final lap.

Following Innes FitzGerald’s 5000m victory on day one of the championships, it means the Great Britain & Northern Ireland team are top of the medals table with four golds and nine medals in total going into the fourth and final day on Sunday in the Finnish city.

Belshaw, 17, surged away from her rivals in the latter stages to take 1500m gold in 4:14.59 with Carmen Cernjul of Sweden second in 4:15.00.

Belshaw’s GB team-mate Eleanor Strevens was also in the mix for a medal on the last lap but began to fade down the back straight whereas another Brit, Isobelle Jones, finished strongly to take bronze in 4:16.18.

Strevens wound up fifth in 4:17.51.

Henrich stormed to 400m victory in a PB of 51.68 as Johanna Martin of Germany was runner-up in 52.00 and Anastazja Kus of Poland third in 52.23.

British runners nearly completed a clean sweep of the medals in the men’s 800m but it was not to be as Rabjohns was disqualified. This left Mirfin as the winner in 1:48.09 with fellow Brit Tom Waterworth second in 1:48.20 as Aaron Ceballos of Spain was upgraded to gold after Rabjohns was DQ’d.

With runners jostling for position, Rabjohns had tried to move through on the inside of rival runners down the back straight on the final lap but ended up stepping on the inside of the track. A domino effect then caused Ryan Barcala to fall, with the disgruntled Spanish runner coming home last.

The 200m finals saw Judith Bilepo Mokobe of Germany take the women’s crown with 23.40 (-2.0) as Britain’s Lucy Tallon won silver with 23.49, the same time as third-placed Terezie Táborská…