Athletics: Britain’s Kilty retains 60 meters title

BELGRADE (Reuters) – Britain’s Richard Kilty overcame a sluggish start to retain his 60 meters title at the European indoor athletics championships on Saturday.

Kilty was rather slow off the starting blocks but finished strong in 6.54 seconds to beat Slovakian Jan Volko and Swede Austin Hamilton who took silver and bronze respectively.

His triumph was not the only British success as Laura Muir claimed gold in the 1,500m final earlier on Saturday.

Poland grabbed two titles as Konrad Bukowiecki, 19, claimed the shot put gold medal with a throw at 21.97 meters, and Marcin Lewandowski met expectations with a perfectly-managed 1,500 meters.

Pavel Maslak of the Czech Republic had no rival as he powered to his third consecutive 400 meters title, while Albania’s Izmir Smajlaj won the long jump gold with a final leap at 8.08 meters.

The women’s 400 meters titles was won by France’s Floria Guei.

(Writing by Julien Pretot, editing by Pritha Sarkar)