Great Britain's Laura Muir retains European 1500m title in style

Laura Muir capped a summer of major championships medals by defending her European 1500m title in Munich.

Mageean hung tough in Muir's slipstream until the final bend, before running out of gas and settling for silver.

A little over 30 minutes later, Zharnel Hughes and Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake completed a British 200m one-two.

Team-mate Lawrence Okoye, meanwhile, threw 67.14m - his best in a decade - to take discus bronze.

Muir grits out another major medal

Muir's continental win adds to Olympic silver, world bronze and Commonwealth gold over the past 12 months.

Mageean, who also took second in Muir's wake at Birmingham 2022, finished in a season's best four minutes 02.56 seconds, just less than a second and a half off the winner.

Muir's team-mate Katie Snowden took fourth, with compatriot Ellie Baker in eighth. Poland's Sofia Ennaoui, who finished fifth at the recent World Championships, took bronze after being caught out of position when Muir and Mageean kicked for home.

The third and final peak in a log-jammed summer of championships proved the toughest to climb admitted Muir afterwards.

"This summer looked hard on paper but doing it in person? Never again," she told BBC Sport.

"This was the hardest one. It looked the easiest with only one event and two rounds, but it was so tough mentally, it was the most difficult race I have ever run, honestly."

Just as in her win in Berlin four years ago, the Netherlands' Sifan Hassan was missing from the field, which made Muir's task easier.

But there is little doubt that Muir is now a better athlete - both in numbers and neckwear.

Six of her seven fastest times over 1500m have come since her last European title, while a sudden glut of major medals, after a series of big-event disappointments, have confirmed her as a contender in any company.

Muir's confidence was clear as she lurked at the back of the pack on the opening lap, before moving up, taking control and blowing the field apart.

As Muir rounded for home and gritted her teeth with Mageean still in striking distance, it briefly looked as if she may have misjudged her move.

But her reserves of stamina and determination proved more than deep enough to bail her out as she won in some comfort.

The Scot flopped to the track over the line and lay hand in hand with Mageean as both recovered from another draining duel.

Hughes upgrades to gold

Hughes took 100m silver behind Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs earlier in the week, but never looked like being derailed from victory over the longer distance.

He came off the bend level with team-mate Charlie Dobson, but as the 22-year-old prospect tightened and slowed, Hughes' stride stayed long and strong.

Hughes clocked a winning time of 20.07 seconds with Mitchell-Blake edging out Italy's Filippo Tortu for second, in a reversal of a tight finish between the pair on the 4x100m anchor leg at the Tokyo Olympic final last summer.

"Gold, what a way to end it," Hughes said.

"I am very grateful, very happy. The Europeans were more a mental game than a physical one, because we knew I was fit, and my mental strength is on par."

Dobson finished fourth in 20.34 seconds, 0.13 seconds slower than his impressive semi-final win yesterday.

"I gave it my best but unfortunately wasn't good enough on the day," he said.

"I was going well round the bend, but tightened up and lost my footing a bit and it was downhill from there."

'This is hopefully the start of something'

Okoye's European bronze follows Commonwealth silver in Birmingham

Okoye, who reached the London 2012 final when he was 20 and then headed to the NFL to try to make it as an American footballer, had his decision to return to discus further vindicated after winning Commonwealth silver in Birmingham.

His opening round effort of 67.14m was a little more than a metre down on his decade-old personal best and good enough to finish ahead of Olympic champion Daniel Stahl in a high-class field.

Okoye broke into sobs as the achievement of becoming Britain's first European discus medallist sunk in.

"To do what I did today in a field like this means the world to me. It is not something I can describe. I couldn't hold it back," he said

"Everyone knows I have had a big throw in me for a long time and it was great to get it out. This is hopefully the start for me."

Earlier in the evening, Britain's 1500m world champion Jake Wightman admitted he was "lucky" to come through his 800m semi-final after getting boxed in.

Wightman worked himself free of trouble to come home second in an automatic qualifying spot.

"I actually ran that very poorly," he told BBC Sport.

"I thought with 300m to go I had screwed it up because I was in such a bad position, but the confidence I can take from it is I must be fit enough to come back from that position, which was not where I wanted to be at the bell."

Team-mate Ben Pattison will join him in Sunday's final, but Daniel Rowden failed to qualify after being run out of a sprint finish in a slower first semi-final.