Levine bags silver in Gothenburg

Nigel Levine claimed silver in the men's 400 metres at the European Indoor Championships and Mukhtar Mohammed bronze in the 800m as Britain claimed more medals on the final day in Gothenburg.

Defending champion Jenny Meadows was fourth in the women's 800m, while world indoor champion Yamile Aldama, 40, was sixth in the triple jump final and Lauren Howarth also sixth in the 3,000m final which featured a rare false start.

Steve Lewis could only manage joint sixth place in a high-quality pole vault final.

The 26-year-old, fifth at the London Olympics, had a best clearance of 5.71m, but it was not enough to trouble a field that contained all three of the 2012 medallists. He had to clear a personal best 5.81m to stay in the competition, but failed his three attempts.

Chris Tomlinson fared no better in the long jump, his best effort of 7.95m leaving him seventh.

Levine and Russia's Pavel Trenikhin tangled on the final bend and although Trenikhin managed to finish third, he was clearly unhappy about the situation and lodged a protest - only to be the man disqualified, not Levine.

Pavel Maslak of the Czech Republic was a clear winner, with Britain's Michael Bingham and Richard Strachan moving up to fourth and fifth respectively following the disqualification.

"It was tough, the Russian actually cut in front of me," Levine said. "I was on the inside and he cut in front of me and I had to trap my stride. I can't believe I came second to be honest."

Mohammed had been targeting gold in the 800m but failed to get to the front of the race as intended and had to settle for a hard-fought bronze. The 22-year-old was twice barged into by Anis Ananenka of Belarus, the second time as the pair battled to get across the line, with Mohammed just edging ahead by 0.01s. Poland's Adam Kszczot won gold ahead of Spain's Kevin Lopez.

"That was a tough race between me and the Belarussian guy, who gave me a hard time on the last lap and I lost the first two positions because of him," Mohammed said. "I had to fight to get a medal. I didn't want to mess it up. At the end of the day it's the cleverest guys who win the big championships. This is still a learning experience for me."