Hometown hero Matthew Hudson-Smith stormed to 400m gold at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham to make it a hat-trick of career individual continental titles.
The 31-year-old from Wolverhampton, assigned lane nine, got out to an early lead he never relinquished despite efforts to reel him in, holding off his challengers to cross the line in 44.17 seconds.
The only dampener on the Olympic silver medallists achievement were the empty seats in the stadium, nowhere near capacity, including the temporary stand named after the European record-holder – who grew up on the track competing for Birchfield Harriers.
Muhammad Abdallah Kounta of France took silver in 44.40s and Jonas Phijffers of the Netherlands rounded out the podium in a national record 44.41s.
