Oxford City’s Hannah England was left devastated after she failed to qualify for the final of the 1,500m European Indoor Championships in Turin yesterday.
Prior to the race, England had been in red-hot form, having impressed at both the Grand Prix in Birmingham and the British trials in Sheffield last month.
However, she was unable to repeat her displays.
She started the race well in Turin and maintained a place towards the back of the lead pack but was unable to make up ground on the final lap. Her time of 4mins 14.75secs saw her finish in seventh place.
England, who celebrated her 22nd birthday yesterday, said: “I felt good until the last 200m, I found it hard to overtake anyone, I should have ran a better race than I did.
“I didn’t want to just make up the numbers, I wanted to make the final.
“At the moment it just feels like a totally wasted opportunity.”
Fellow Brit, Susan Scott (City of Glasgow Victoria Park) also suffered disappointment finishing sixth in her heat in 4.13.40.
Sale Harriers Andy Turner missed the bronze medal by one hundredths of a second, as he finished fourth in the sprint hurdles final in 7.62.
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