Dutchman's finishing flourish takes the U23 champion to senior gold, while Andreas Almgren front runs his way to dominant 10,000m victory.

Stefan Nillessen stunned the Alexander Stadium crowd and his opponents with a finishing surge that swept him to European gold in the men’s 1500m final in Birmingham on Saturday night (August 15).

With the British duo of Jake Wightman and Jake Heyward leading coming off the final bend and looking set to do battle for gold, the Dutch European U23 champion changed gear and flew past, his closing 100m of 12.60 taking him from fourth to first and to his first senior international title in a time of 3:35.70. 

The move caused chaos and silver went to Samuel Pihlström of Sweden in 3:36.16, with bronze going to Ireland’s Andrew Coscoran thanks to his run of 3:36.24. Heyward faded to fourth in 3:36.24, followed by his team-mates Arlo Ludewick (3:36.65) and Wightman, the former world champion coming home in 3:37.18. Portugal's reigning world champion Isaac Nader was 12th in 3:39.69.

Meanwhile, Andreas Almgren produced an extraordinary display of front running to utterly destroy the field on his way to becoming Sweden’s first ever European champion over 10,000m.

The world bronze medallist insisted he had been ready for the cat and mouse of a kicker’s race but, buoyed by the atmosphere generated by the large Alexander Stadium crowd, he took off after three laps and never looked back. 

By the time he hit the finish line, he was surrounded by a swathe of athletes he had lapped, clocking a championship record of 27:23.44 and taking down the mark of 27:30.99 set by Finland’s Martti Vainio back in 1978. 

Swiss defending champion Dominic Lobalu got closest to him with 27:42.67, while French world champion Jimmy Gressier won a sprint finish for third with 28:07.90 from Italy’s Yeman Crippa (28:08.56).

“I wasn’t planning to go for it and expected a kicker’s race but it was such a good atmosphere and I decided to go for it,” said Almgren. “I needed it – in the last five laps I felt like I was dying.”

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