Adam Thomas finished fifth in his first World Athletics Indoor Championships 60m final after a superb day of sprinting from the Bracknell athlete.

He had produced one of the performances of his career to reach the final after finishing second behind Olympic 100m champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs (ITA) in his semi-final, clocking a time of 6.57, which was just 00.1s outside his all-time best.

The GB & NI debutant’s next visit to the Arena saw him lining up next to Jacobs for one of the highlights of the day in Belgrade. The Briton once again got out strongly, but the heavyweights in the field sprinted away to take the medal places, while Thomas bagged a brilliant fifth position in a time of 6.60.

Marcell Jacobs won gold by a few thousandths from Christian Coleman (USA), both given a time of 6.41 and were separated by the photo-finish. Another American, Marvin Bracey took the bronze with a PB of 6.44.

A delighted Thomas said afterwards, “It has been an amazing day, such a fun experience. I don’t think that was the best of me in the final as I didn’t manage to pull together my race fully but it’s a hard thing to do, to piece together three races in a day. And these guys I am racing against have a lot of experience in doing that. Not just from a racing point of view, but a resting point of view – to switch off and switch it back on again, it takes a lot of practice to do that.

“I probably gave a little bit too much in that semi-final. My first 30m, I was really pleased with that, but I got stuck in my hips and didn’t get up into my running. Then in the final I fell a bit flat on strides five to seven and had way too much to do to work myself back into the race.

“But I can’t complain, I’m lining up next to Marcell Jacobs – he may have blown me away a little bit in the final, but it was an amazing experience. I look up to those guys from a technical perspective, but you meet them, and they are just nice and normal guys. You don’t have to lay out the red carpet for them and let them beat you.”

On the confidence boost this indoor season will have given him heading into the outdoor campaign, he added, “When I look back on my three races, they have given me so much fuel for the summer season. I am targeting the Commonwealth Games and it would be very special for me to compete for Scotland this summer.”

Andrew Robertson (Sale Harriers Manchester) exited at the semi-final stage, clocking 6.64 for third in the first semi-final. The time was not enough to see him go from as one of the next two fastest qualifiers.

In the heats this morning, Robertson and Thomas had both qualified after swift progress in the heats. Thomas ran – then – the second quickest time of his career to comfortably move into the semi-finals with 6.59 after a second-place finish. Meanwhile Robertson was fifth in his heat in a time of 6.62, so he faced a nervous wait to see if he’d advance as one of the three next fastest but ultimately, the time was enough to see him return.

In the men’s shot put final Scott Lincoln (Paul Wilson, City of York) ended the competition in 16^th position overall, while the world title went to Darlan Romani. (BRA) who won in a Championship record of 22.53m.

Lincoln threw 19.33m on his first visit to the circle, improving to 19.45m in round two before a mark of 19.65m in round three to complete his series as only the top eight received three further throws.

Lincoln said afterwards, ““Not the world debut I was hoping for, but putting things into perspective, I know where I can improve and I’m just going to keep working hard. The outdoor season has always been the aim anyway, I am not suited to the indoor ring as well as the outdoor ring so we’ll go from here and keep building.

“There’s a big summer coming up. I am planning on doing all three [Worlds, Commonwealths, and Europeans] so I am just going to get back to the UK now, have a week off to recover, have a bit of enjoyment in life and, as I say, just keep building.”

Earlier during the morning session, Emily Borthwick (Wigan & District) finished tenth in the women’s high jump final, while Neil Gourley (Ben Thomas Giffnock North) advanced to tomorrow evening’s 1500m showpiece on day two of the World Athletics Indoor Championships. Elsewhere, Keely Hodgkinson (Trevor Painter, Leigh) had to withdraw from the 800m due to a quad injury.

Results