Oxfordshire's Lawrence Clarke gained inspiration from Great Britain’s gold medallist, Katarina Johnson-Thompson, as he finished fifth in the 60m hurdles final at the European Indoor Championships in Prague, writes STUART WEIR.

The 24-year-old, from Christmas Common, near Watlington, saw the Liverpool athlete break Jessica Ennis-Hill’s British record to claim pentathlon gold.

He was also spurred on by Lucy Hatton and Serita Solomon capturing silver and bronze respectively for Britain in the women’s 60m hurdles as Belarus’s Alina Talay struck gold.

Clarke may have missed out on a medal himself, finishing out of the frame in a time of 7.63secs as Pascal Martinot-Lagarde led home a Frenchone-two-three, winning in 7.49 from Dimitri Bascou and Wilhelm Belocian.

But nonetheless, he was happy with his performance.

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He said: “I am actually quite pleased as I made a complete hash of the first two rounds and I have come back and run one of my quicker times of the season.

“It was a very clean final and I can take a lot away from that.

“I was definitely motivated by the two girls winning their medals just before me and Katarina doing so well also.”

Clarke had earlier finished second in his heat and fourth in the semi-final in 7.65 and 7.66.

Johnson-Thompson, whose 5,000 points saw her fall just short of Ukrainian Nataliya Dobrynska’s world record of 5,013, said: “I’m feeling very emotional. Obviously I’m happy to come away with my first senior championship gold.”