HANNAH England believes she is starting to belong on athletics’ big stage – but she was left devastated with her performance at the European Indoor Championships in Paris on Friday.

England looked on course for qualification for Saturday's final in the 1500m with her tactics seemingly spot-on.

Down the home straight, she was well clear of her rivals in second place, but with the line in sight, she dramatically ran out of fuel, fading to a frustrating fifth in an equally disappointing 4mins 13.45secs.

“I just don’t know what happened to be honest,” said England, who placed fourth in the 1500m at last year’s Commonwealth Games in Delhi.

“I started really well and felt really strong, but then I just died towards the end and it’s so disappointing.

“I just ran out of legs, I felt like I was doing fine, but then in the last lap I just couldn’t keep up – of course they raised the pace and I expected that, but I thought I would be able to cope with it.

“Maybe I used up my legs keeping the Polish girl at bay in the middle part of the race, but I expected to be able to kick and I just couldn’t.

“It’s a real shame and it’s a missed opportunity, but it was just rubbish, there’s not much more I can say about it.”

England will now return home to refocus her sights on August’s IAAF World Championships in Daegu – but knows there is strength in depth in her event, underlined by her narrow failure to make the British team for the Beijing Olympics and last worlds in Berlin two years ago.

“All I can do now is use this to spur me on in training,” she added.

“There’s a lot to look forward to in the summer and so I’m going to have to work very hard to make sure I come back a lot stronger than this.”

Meanwhile, Tiffany Ofili took Britain’s first medal of the championships when she stormed to a surprise silver in the 60m hurdles.

In the American-born Ofili’s first championship in a British vest since she was cleared to compete for the country of her mother's birth, she destroyed the GB national record and initially appeared to have taken gold.

But, after a delay, a photo-finish then awarded the title to Germany's Carolin Nytra, despite both athletes being given the same time of 7.80 seconds.

In the men’s 3,000m, Mo Farah and Andy Baddeley both qualified for Saturday afternoon’s final.

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