INTERNATIONAL sprinter Robert Tobin (right) reached the 400 metres final at the European junior championships in Italy at the weekend.
The youngest runner in the field, the 17-year-old Basingstoke and Mid-Hants AC star clocked 47.44sec to finish sixth in Grosotto.
The time was only 14 hundredths of a second outside his lifetime best, set in winning the national under-20 title at Bedford earlier this month.
The day before Tobin was second in his heat but he came home with a silver medal as a member of the British team in the 4x400m relay team.
Gold was denied the national team by just nine hundredths of a second.
Tobin, watched by a family party of four, ran the lead-off leg and the rest of the team was Sam Ellis, Russell Nicholls and Jeff Christy, in the heat, and Tim Benjamin, in the final.
Britain was second in the medal table behind Russia and the boys' team were second overall on points while the combined team were third overall.
After returning from the four-day championship, Tobin is off again this weekend to France to compete for Great Britain under-19s against France near Dijon.
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