Jake Wightman hoping to emulate British greats Coe and Ovett

By Will Jennings in Munich

Jake Wightman reckons the fun-fuelled end to his whirlwind season can catapult him on the same trajectory as middle distance legends Seb Coe and Steve Ovett.

The world 1500m champion rounded off a gruelling campaign with a European 800m silver medal last night after being beaten by Spaniard Mariano Garcia in Munich.

Wightman, 28, stunned rival Jakob Ingebrigtsen at last month’s World Championships in Oregon before the impact of a disappointing bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games left him pondering his options ahead of a third major championship in the space of five weeks.

The Scot ran a shortened distance in Germany to release the pressure and showcase his diversity and was just 0.06s away from grabbing gold at the city’s 1972 Olympic Stadium.

Wightman is a student of the school of middle distance running and hopes his hard-fought silver can help him follow in the footsteps of his heroes next season.

The 28-year-old, who finished above Ireland’s Mark English in third and British star Ben Pattison in sixth, said: “You look at the days of Coe and Ovett in Moscow 1980, coming out and running as well in an 800m as in 1500m.

“I’d love to be like that – and this is a good stepping stone towards it for me.

“800m races are fun – I think they’re more fun to watch as you don’t bore people with four minutes of running, and it’s only two.

“Every round I’ve learned a little bit more throughout the seasons – I hope I can race some more 800m in championships, because I feel like I’ve got some potential to go and do that on a global stage if I give a little bit more care towards it.”

Wightman has enjoyed a thrilling, if not chaotic, couple of months after that shock gold medal in Eugene propelled him to a newfound level of stardom.

That took him into the Commonwealth Games with a significant target on his back but representing Scotland, he was unable to emulate his American exploits as fresher Australian star Ollie Hoare claimed a stunning win at the Alexander Stadium.

A switch in focus followed in Germany this week and despite failing to claim gold, silver must be considered success for an athlete who, put simply, is ready for a rest.

Wightman added: “I felt like the season was never going to end.

“The thing that I’ve proudest of is that I’ve kept my head through it all, because mentally the World Championships were hard to come back from.

“The Commonwealth Games was the toughest one I had – I really enjoyed these championships doing a different event, having no pressure on me as I’m necessarily an 800m runner.

“Even through I’d have loved that to be a gold, I came close.

“The problem with 800m running is that you have to be tactically perfect in a race like that and I was a little bit too far back on the straight to make up that gap.

“I’m disappointed but if you’d said to be before, I would have taken that.”

Elsewhere on the final night in Munich, Emile Cairess and Marc Scott finished 11th and 12th in the men’s 10,000m final as Yemaneberhan Crippa claimed a brilliant gold.

Crippa, 25, crossed the line in a searing time of 27:46.13 ahead of Zerei Kbrom Mezngi and Yann Schrub, both of whom ran personal bests but were unable to topple the resurgent Italian.

Cairess, 24, clocked a time of 28:07.37 to finish 13 seconds shy of the podium places while Scott, a European indoor bronze medallist over 3000m in Belgrade earlier this year, crossed the line 0.35s behind his teammate.

Cairess was fuming with his performance and the former European Under-23 bronze medallist said: “That was rubbish.

“It’s easy to be in the right place when the race isn’t going yet, but as soon as it got moving I couldn’t and I felt like my legs didn’t have anything from the beginning.

“Training has been way better than this.

“It wasn’t good for me, I was hoping for much better and I just didn’t feel it and it was hard work.

“I didn’t want loads of people there at the end but my legs weren’t cooperating at the end. But it can’t always go your way.”

Fellow Brit Cindy Sember reached the women’s 100m hurdles final but could only finish eighth as teammate Jess Hunter was unable to qualify on the last night of action in Germany.

The multi-sport European Championships Munich 2022, featuring Athletics, Beach Volleyball, Canoe Sprint, Cycling, Gymnastics, Table Tennis, Triathlon, Rowing, Sport Climbing, took place between 11th-21st August on the 50th anniversary of the Olympics Games in the German city. Daily live coverage was across BBC One, Two, Red Button, BBC iPlayer, BBC Sport website