MELISSA Courtney-Bryant crowned her remarkable comeback with a second 3,000m bronze medal at the European Indoor Athletics Championships, reports Nigel Harding.

Since finishing third at Glasgow 2019, the Poole AC star had endured two wilderness years with a serious tendon injury in her foot followed the Covid shutdown. Last year, though she qualified for all three major championships, she failed to recapture her earlier form.

However, Courtney-Bryant seized her opportunity as the third-fastest athlete this year in the Istanbul final, avoiding trouble from a far outside draw in the painfully slow early stages.

When pre-race favourite Konstanze Klosterhalfen injected some pace, only her team-mate Hanna Klein and Courtney-Bryant covered her break. Though the German duo gradually opened a gap on the Poole AC ace, her second and third kilometres of 2:49.80 and 2:50.19 kept her almost four seconds clear of the chasing pack.

This was the third successive bronze by a Dorset athlete in this event as Verity Ockenden was third in 2021 in Poland.

Meanwhile, Edward Bird secured the senior boys’ bronze medal in the English Schools’ Cross-Country Championships at Nottingham.

European Indoor Athletics Championships – Women’s 3,000m: 1 Hanna Klein (Germany) 8:35.87, 2 Konstanze Klosterhalfen (Germany) 8:36.50, 3 Melissa Courtney-Bryant (Team GB) 8:41.19