Alexandra Bell keeps medal hopes alive after difficult 800m heat

By Will Jennings in MunichAlexandra Bell battled through one of the worst tactical races of her career to keep her medal hopes alive at the multi-sport European Championships. The Leeds middle distance star finished second in her Thursday morning heat as a time of 2:02.43 hauled her into the semi-finals as an automatic qualifier. Ad But Bell struggled to pull together a cohesive race plan and only narrowly scraped past Irish ace Louise Shanahan at Munich's Olympic Stadium.

AthleticsBen Pattison hopes a fast finish will fire him onto the podium in Munich6 MINUTES AGO French star Rénelle Lamote won the early morning 10am contest and Bell, who finished sixth at the Commonwealth Games this summer, admits she will need to sharpen up if she is to reel the frontrunners in on Friday night. The 29-year-old said: «I feel tactically, that was probably one of the worst put-together races I've done. »But then it's not how you do it, it's getting there that's the main thing.

«It's quite a relief — it's the first time in quite a while I have actually got through as an automatic qualifier and I don't have to wait, so it's a really good feeling. »I'm very happy that I was on an automatic qualifier. I felt I was a bit rusty with the way the tactics panned out, but I had to trust and believe that after that first slow lap, I would have that last kick to push on.

«I was more nervous about the timings this morning. I usually train at this time, but I don't usually have to get up at 6:30am to prepare for it!» Bell finished seventh in the Olympic final last summer as she ran a brilliant personal best of 1:57.66 in Tokyo. But she's struggled with a stop-start 2022 campaign after an early season injury derailed her progress for the World