European Indoor Athletics: Eilidh Doyle misses out on 400m final - BBC Sport
Eilidh Doyle misses out but Laviai Nielsen qualifies for the 400m final at the European Indoor Athletics Championships in Belgrade.
Last updated on .From the section Athletics

Coverage: Watch live on BBC Two, Connected TV, Red Button and the BBC Sport website.

Britain's Eilidh Doyle missed out on qualification for the 400m final at the European Indoor Athletics Championships in Belgrade.

The 30-year-old Scot was edged into third in her semi-final, with only the top two athletes progressing.

Her fellow Briton Laviai Nielsen, 20, finished second in her semi-final to reach Saturday's final.

Scot Laura Muir qualified for both the 1500m and 3,000m finals, to be held on Saturday and Sunday respectively.

The 23-year-old won her 1500m heat in four minutes 10.28 seconds, having earlier reached the 3,000 final as a fastest loser by clocking 8:55.56.

Team-mate Sarah McDonald (4:12.50) will join Muir in the 1500m final, while Steph Twell (8:55.02) and Eilish McColgan (8:57.85) also advanced to the 3,000m final.

"I wanted to conserve as much as I could for the finals," said Muir.

"You always want to win a race, so you just have to be sensible and just do what is necessary."

Doyle, ranked third in Europe this year, faded in the final stretch and was overtaken by Poland's Malgorzata Holub on the line as she clocked 52.81.

"I didn't know what was going on, I was just tightening up a bit and trying to get to the line as quickly as I could and I'm just absolutely gutted," Doyle told BBC Sport.

"I wanted to win the semi-final and get a good lane for the final so to not even make the final is pretty heartbreaking."

Elsewhere, Morgan Lake qualified in third place for the women's high jump final on Saturday.

The 19-year-old was one of seven athletes to clear 1.90m and one of only three to do so on their first attempt.

Fellow Briton Tom Lancashire, 31, won his 1,500m heat to qualify for Saturday's final, coming through to post 3:47.37 - the ninth-quickest time overall.

And Kyle Langford, 21, reached the semi-finals of the men's 800m but Guy Learmonth, 24, missed out after finishing fourth in his heat.