Pozzi positive after sailing through to indoor hurdles final

Andy Pozzi put himself in a good frame of mind to defend his European Indoor Championships title after comfortably qualifying for tonight's 60 metres hurdles final with a season's best performance.

Pozzi was told he would miss the indoor season after suffering a thigh injury before Christmas.

But the Stratford-upon-Avon athlete has quickly found his rhythm in Glasgow and finished second behind Spain's Orlando Ortega in the fastest semi-final in 7.61 seconds.

"That was a good race, nice and smooth and it will set me up well for later," said the 28-year-old, who is also world indoor champion.

"As soon as I stepped on the line (on Saturday), everything came back, it is like riding a bike.

"I love this environment so much, it always brings the best out of me and I knew that would be the case. I knew as long as I was healthy coming here, I would find it on the start line.

"I am here to give my absolute best, if it is good enough for gold then that is great. I am still finding my feet but if I give a great performance, I will take what comes with it. I think I am going to be pretty competitive."

Great Britain's other hopeful, David King, missed out on the final by one-hundredth of a second after posting a time of 7.71secs in his race.

Great Britain's Tim Duckworth is in second spot ahead of the final heptathlon event.

Duckworth lost his overnight lead to Spaniard Jorge Urena after finishing third in his heat in the 60m hurdles. Urena was the only competitor to break the eight-second mark in 7.78. Duckworth set the fourth-fastest time overall with 8.16.

The pair both jumped 5m flat in the pole vault to finish in fifth and sixth place as Urena stayed just six points clear but with a 16-second advantage over Duckworth in personal bests in the final  event, the 1000m.

With 10 points available per second, Duckworth is 55 points clear of Russian Ilya Shkurenyov, who is competing as a neutral, and 68 clear of Sweden's Fredrik Samuelsson.