Seamus Derbyshire hopes resilience will bring European glory

By Will Jennings in Munich Seamus Derbyshire reckons his trademark never-say-die attitude can fire him towards a European medal in Munich. Ad The Stoke athletics star scraped through his 400m hurdles heat on Wednesday as a time of 50.08s hauled him into the final automatic qualifying spot. AthleticsHudson-Smith retains European title to banish Commonwealth demons21 MINUTES AGO Derbyshire, 22, finished just 0.01s ahead of Czech Martin Tucek and will now race again for a place in the final on Thursday.

The Staffordshire runner started sluggishly at the Olympic Stadium and hopes an ability to dig deep when it matters can help him spring a shock. «That feels really good,» he said. «I made some mistakes early on in my race, but one of the things I and my coach have been talking about is like, to keep fighting until the end.

»I'm a strong finisher, so there's no reason why I can't pull myself out of a situation that's uncomfortable, especially because I'm a good hurdler. «So I just fought to the end, the very end, and dived for the line. »And I was just waiting for that and thinking 'please be enough'.

«I'm really happy to get the job done and move on to tomorrow. »I was mainly focusing on myself for the entire race, but I also use the people around me, that energy, the energy from the crowd and really push it. «I didn't want to walk away with any regrets, and that's what I did.