Crowd propelled me to best-ever finish, says race-walker Davies

Resurgent racewalker Bethan Davies believes the magical Munich crowd helped propel her to her best-ever finish at a major international championships. The Cardiff star delivered a battling display to finish 11th in Tuesday morning's 35km event at the multi-sport European Championships. Ad Davies, 31, clocked a valiant time of 2:59:38 on a boiling day in Germany as Greek star Antigoni Ntrismpioti grabbed gold.

AthleticsButchart feels unlucky to miss out on medal after busy track season31 MINUTES AGO She said: «It's the highest I've ever finished in a competition like this, so I'm over the moon. »It was really good support today — I didn't feel like there was any point where it dropped off. «There was lots of British support, which is really nice.

»The race walking community is a very tight-knit community so people from all countries cheer you on, which is a really great atmosphere. «The heat definitely ramped up — it was okay to begin with as we started so early and the course was in the shade, but definitely in the second half. »I was working really well with one of the Spanish girls up to about halfway and then she picked it up and I had a bit of a wobble in the middle.

«But then I seemed to have a bit of a second wind as other people started to feel the heat, so I picked a couple of people off. »Sometimes in conditions like this you have to go with how you feel." The women's race got underway at 8:30am in Munich before the mercury started to rise throughout the morning and make for punishing conditions across all sports. Athletics is one of nine sports holding their European Championships in Munich this week as triathlon, gymnastics, cycling and rowing also feature on the 50th anniversary of the city hosting the