COWDENBEATH track star Jack Lawrie became a European finalist on Sunday but missed out on winning a medal for Great Britain.

The talented 21-year-old was in action at the European Athletics Under-23 Championships in Bydgoszcz, Poland, which took place over four days from Thursday.

Former Beath High School pupil Lawrie, who races for Pitreavie Amateur Athletics Club, secured his selection to run in the 400m hurdles for the British team by smashing his lifetime best at last month's England U23 and U20 Championships in Bedford.

His time of 50.25 seconds – 0.60 better than this previous best and just 0.001 outside the Scottish record – saw him finish second in the race and secure his seat on the plane for the event.

The men's 400m hurdles got underway on Friday and Lawrie eased his way into the semi-finals by finishing second in his heat with a time of 50.40, just 0.02 seconds behind Frenchman Ludvy Vaillant, in what was the second quickest heat time overall.

Running in the second semi-final, which he described as "messy", Lawrie posted a time of 50.46 to finish fourth and secure the final berth in the final.

However, a slower time than in both his heat and semi-final – he ran 50.60 – saw him finish in seventh place, just ahead of Czech Republic's Vít Müller, as he and team-mate Jacob Paul, who finished fifth, missed out on the medals that were won by Norway's Karsten Warholm (48.37), Dany Brand of Switzerland (49.14) and Vaillant (49.31).

Lawrie, who won gold at the Scottish Athletics National Relay Championships in April, outlined his ambition to qualify for the European Under-23 Championships and next year's Commonwealth Games, which will take place on Australia's Gold Coast, in February.

At the time, he said: "The main events for me would be the European Under-23s, and then qualification for the Commonwealth Games off the back of that, hopefully.

"The qualifying time for the Commies is 50s. I definitely feel confident I can get there, but it is a big ask. You're starting to get into a really high level of running.

"But I'm fairly confident I'll hit that. Being selected for the Commies would be great; it would make all the cold nights at the track, all the hours you and everybody else puts in to support you, worth it – it would be a great sense of achievement."

Despite Lawrie missing out on a medal, the British team returned home from the competition with 10 medals, which consisted of three gold, four silver and three bronze.

That meant they finished level in second place with the hosts in the medal table, which was topped by Germany.