Leon Reid places seventh in Euro finals

By Will Downing, Berlin

Leon Reid has come home seventh in the men’s 200m final at the European Athletics Championships in Berlin.

50 minutes after Thomas Barr’s magnificent bronze-medal win for Ireland over 400m hurdles, Reid found himself outflanked by world champion Ramil Guliyev of Turkey, who won in a Championship record 19.76 seconds.

"I want to be in the mix - I don't want to be seventh" Leon Reid sums up his run in the final of the 200m at the European Athletics Championships #rtesport pic.twitter.com/ov5D3ltFEH

— RTÉ Sport (@RTEsport) August 9, 2018

Reid was in contention heading into the closing straight but was outsprinted over the final sixty metres.

His time of 20.37 seconds, equal to yesterday’s mark in the heats, is the joint second-best performance ever by an Irish athlete, and matches Reid’s third best-ever 200m clocking.

Guliyev’s 19.76 was only 0.04 outside Pietro Mennea’s famous European record from 1979, which stood as the world record for almost a decade.

Nethaneel Richardson-Blake of Britain won silver in 20.04, given second by 0.006 over Alex Wilson, whose 20.04 was a new Swiss national record.

More to follow.