Shane Quinn came within half a kick of winning Ireland's first medal at the European Under-23 Championships in Tampere, Finland yesterday, finishing fourth in a high-quality 10,000 metres.

Quinn looked to have done everything right, running tactically cute and holding a medal position with two laps remaining - but when Spain's Gabriel Navarro made the decisive break at the bell, Quinn dropped into fourth, finishing in a new personal best of 29:49.43.

Thomas Barr, however, will start as a medal favourite in the final of the 400 metres hurdles this afternoon, after winning his semi-final heat yesterday in 50.11 seconds. This ranks Barr second fastest in the final, where he'll be joined by Jason Harvey, who also qualified by finishing second in his semi-final in 50.65.

Richard Morrissey qualified for the final of the men's 400m after finishing third in his heat, and Conor McCullough is into the final of the hammer after throwing a season's best of 69.40m to finish in third place in group A. However, there was disappointment for Mark English, who after a recent spell of illness ran bravely in his heats of the 800m but missed out on the final by finishing in third in a time of 1:49.65. The

At the World University Games in Kazan, Tomás Cotter made the final of the 3,000m steeplechase, where he finished 10th in 8:59.40. And at IAAF World Youths in Donetsk David Cussen jumped 2.09m in the high jump to qualify for the final.