Lyla Belshaw in the women's 1500m, Charlotte Henrich in the women's 400m and Rafferty Mirfin in a controversial men's 800m all enjoy victories on Saturday in Tampere

British junior athletes enjoyed a hat-trick of wins on the track on the penultimate day of the European Under-20 Championships in Tampere, Finland, on Saturday (Aug 9).

Lyla Belshaw struck gold in the women's 1500m with GB team-mate Isobelle Jones taking bronze. Charlotte Henrich won the women's 400m with a powerful performance over one lap. Rafferty Mirfin took victory in the men's 800m but only after GB team-mate Will Rabjohns, who was first over the line, was disqualified for running on the inside of the track down the back straight on the final lap.

Following Innes FitzGerald's 5000m victory on day one of the championships, it means the Great Britain & Northern Ireland team are top of the medals table with four golds and nine medals in total going into the fourth and final day on Sunday in the Finnish city.

Belshaw, 17, surged away from her rivals in the latter stages to take 1500m gold in 4:14.59 with Carmen Cernjul of Sweden second in 4:15.00.

Belshaw's GB team-mate Eleanor Strevens was also in the mix for a medal on the last lap but began to fade down the back straight whereas another Brit, Isobelle Jones, finished strongly to take bronze in 4:16.18 as Strevens wound up fifth in 4:17.51.

Belshaw said: "I wanted to get out, get into the inside, kind of stick in the third or fourth, which I managed to, and then pick on the last lap, which was expected. I was just kind of trying to stay and push the whole group off the bend and to come through.

"I am looking up to Keely (Hodgkinson), Georgia (Hunter Bell) and Kelly Holmes, who have done it before."

Jones said: "I was running for my life. I knew I needed to improve my PB to be able to end up in the front. I am so proud of Lyla. She is so amazing and it is great to be a part of such strong British team.

"I was obviously the weakest one and I had nothing to lose. But at the same time, I had so much to gain."

Henrich stormed to 400m victory in a PB of 51.68 as Johanna Martin of Germany was runner-up in 52.00 and Anastazja Kus of Poland third in 52.23.

"It is such a nice track. I am so grateful to be here and Finland is such a lovely place," said Henrich. "Obviously, this has been my biggest aim whole year. This is my last under-20 and I just want to make the most of it.

"I did the European Under-18s three years ago (winning gold in 53.54) and I was thinking about that a lot. It is a huge boost of the self-confidence. Million per cent, these championships can help me in my career."

British runners nearly completed a clean sweep of the medals in the men's 800m but it was not to be as Rabjohns was disqualified. This left Mirfin as the winner in 1:48.09 with fellow Brit Tom Waterworth second in 1:48.20 as Aaron Ceballos of Spain was upgraded to gold after Rabjohns' DQ.

With runners jostling for position, Rabjohns had tried to move through on the inside of rival runners down the back straight on the final lap but ended up stepping on the inside of the track. A domino effect then caused Ryan Barcala to fall, with the disgruntled Spanish runner coming home last.

Mirfin said: "A dramatic race is what we will call it. I am really happy about my performance. Coming in as a first year under-20 and being able to run like that. It was great coming together as one, two, three. But yes... I am really proud of my friends."

Waterworth said: "I am very happy with my performance. Coming with silver medal is great. Will (Rabjohns) is such a lovely guy and I know he is going to be so disappointed with the DQ. Even though he got the first place, it was a very unfortunate DQ. But this will give him an extra motivation to come back stronger and to be an even better athlete in the future and hopefully continue winning medals at even better races."

The 200m finals saw Judith Bilepo Mokobe of Germany take the women's crown with 23.40 (-2.0) as Britain's Lucy Tallon won silver with 23.49, the same time as third-placed Terezie Táborská of Czechia. The men's title went to Diego Nappi of Italy as he clocked 20.77 (-2.9).

There was success for Ireland, too, as Conor Kelly ran a national under-20 400m record of 45.83 in the men's final.

Elsewhere, Croatia’s Vita Barbic took gold in the women’s javelin with a best throw of 55.26m, adding to the European under-18 title she won last year.

In the heptathlon, world under-20 champion Jana Koscak leads the standings overnight by more than 200 points courtesy of a championship high jump best of 1.92m.

READ MORE: Kelly Doualla, 15, wins women's 100m

Michal Rada of Czechia set a championship record of 48.78 in the men's 400m hurdles with Alexandra Stefania Uta of Romania setting a championship record of 55.55 in the women's 400m hurdles.

Axel Rogö won the pole vault with 5.45m and will no doubt be trying to follow in the footsteps of fellow Swede Mondo Duplantis in coming years.

The same will be true of Håkon Moe Berg, who will hope to taste the same kind of success as fellow Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen in future. The youngster clocked 8:43.20 to take the 3000m after destroying his rivals on the final lap in a slow race.

On Sunday the British gold rush is expected to continue with strong chances in the sprint relays, while FitzGerald will try to complete a golden distance running double and Shaikira King goes in the women's 800m.