Another Mistake Cost Sharman Gold In The On Going European Championship In Zurich

Sharman repeated the same mistake he made in Glasgow defeat as his trail leg clipped the seventh hurdle and his front leg smashed into the eighth.

He had been leading at the time, but the errors allowed defending champion Sergey Shubenkov of Russia to come through and claim the gold again.

Sharman's team-mate Lawrence Clarke was forced to miss the final after tweaking his hamstring in the warm-up and Andy Turner failed to qualify in what was his last major championships before retiring.

"I kind of got away with it when I slapped the hurdle with the trailing leg but that exposed the next hurdle which I hit with my lead," Sharman said.

"It's mixed emotions because I knew I was in the lead, I knew where [Sergey] Shubenkov is good and I knew where I was stronger and I didn't expect to be in the lead in the middle section. I could have done more and that's why I was gutted.

"Going into this I was bronze medal hopeful but the good thing is that we've been working on improving my absolute time so that if I do make a mistake in the final I can still come away with a medal. I am taking it down all the time and I think there's still more to come.

"On the start line I was quite tired, having done a personal best not long before, and I wanted just one more effort. When you're drained and the chips are down you have to produce your best result and I almost did."

There was disappointment for Britain's only other medal hope of the day with team captain Goldie Sayers only able to finish eighth in the women's javelin - her third round throw of 58.33 metres proved to be her best of the competition.