Britton’s got talent

“I’m not finishing fourth,” was Fionnuala Britton’s mantra in the last three laps of the 3,000m final as the teak tough Wicklow woman won a fighting bronze medal yesterday.

“Fourth place is the worst place to finish,” said Britton afterwards and that message would have resonated clearly having seen Derval O’Rourke, her room-mate for these European indoor championships, being edged out of a medal by a meagre one-hundredth of a second in the 60m hurdles on Friday night.

O’Rourke tweeted what was in store for Irish fans on the track in Gothenburg early yesterday morning — “Wakey wakey!! Ladies day at the track with Ciara, fionnuala & Amy,” — and gave a running commentary of the day.