Cowdenbeath hurdler Jack Lawrie admitted that he was devastated to narrowly miss out on the medals at the European Athletics Junior Championships.

The 19-year-old had high hopes of finishing on the podium at the 23rd staging of the event in Eskilstuna, Sweden, but had to settle for fourth place in the 400 metre hurdles after a closely contested final.

Former Beath High School pupil Lawrie, who broke his personal best three times in June, posted the fastest heat time of 51.91 seconds before finishing second in his semi-final and was full of confidence that he could return home with a medal.

But an injury niggle in Sunday’s final saw the talented Pitreavie AAC athlete finish more than a second-and-a-half behind the eventual race winner, Victor Coroller, of France, but he was just 0.35 seconds away from the bronze medal that was won by Austria’s Dominik Hufnagal.

Lawrie said, “Don’t get me wrong, being fourth in Europe for my age group is good but in the meets leading up to this and in the couple of days beforehand, I thought I could have medalled so getting fourth was hard to take.

“Even a few days afterwards I am still gutted about it but I will take fourth as a positive because if you had offered me that at the start of the season then I would never have believed you so I am pleased on reflection.

“Looking back at the last two years, I have put in a lot of hard work and everything I have done has helped me finish fourth in Europe so I am pleased.” Second in the all-time records for Scottish 400m hurdlers, Lawrie’s performances are all the more impressive as he combines his training by working 12-hour shifts at an ethanol plant as a process technician, and he continued, “I am really pleased with my season as a whole. I did not expect to run this fast at the start of the year and it has helped keep me going.

“I thought the qualifying time for the European Junior Championships was really difficult but it pushed me on and in the end I ran a time which was the second fastest of all time for juniors in Scotland.

“For the rest of this season I just want to enjoy my last couple of races and see what I can produce.

“As far as next year is concerned, again I want to enjoy my races because there are not a lot of major meets apart from the Olympics and I am not at that level yet so I want to work hard over the next two years and see where it takes me. I am looking forward to seeing how the under-23s take shape in two years time.” SSE’s Next Generation programme partners with SportsAid to provide financial support and training to the sports stars of the future. Keep up to date with the latest @SSENextGen.