BRITISH athletes came out of hibernation in Gothenburg last night, collecting three European Championship bronze medals in just over an hour. Welshman Rhys Williams and Becky Lyne set the ball rolling for the Norwich Union GB side in their 400m hurdles and 800m races. Then Marlon Devonish matched his showing in Munich four years ago, producing a polished performance to finish behind 200m winner Francis Obikwelu. Although they are still without avictory after four days' action, last night's hat-trick followed on from Greg Rutherford's silver in the long jump. Now the charge to attain the stretch target of 10 medals seems well underway, and these victories will undoubtedly inspire those set to follow in their footsteps over the next three days. Williams, who has in the past won European youth, junior and under-23 gold, looked to have blown his chances when coming into the home straight in fifth position. But the son of Welsh rugby legend JJ Williams - who himself ran for Wales when they finished fourth in the 1970 Commonwealth Games 4x100m relay - produced a fine finish. The 22-year-old from Cardiff raced past the French pair of Norman Keita and Sebastien Maillard to clinch third spot by just one hundredth of a second in 49.13s. In the immediate aftermath of the race Williams was unaware he had beaten Mail-lard and thought, just as at the Commonwealth Games in March, he had narrowly blown his chances. But his disappointment quickly turned to delight when within a minute the scoreboard flashed up he had finished behind Greek winner Periklis Iakovakis (48.46sec) and Marek Plawgo of Poland (48.71sec). But Williams still said: "It was not a good race because I went off a little bit too slow. "I was so nervous and I'm glad that's over." Sheffield-born Lyne chased home dominant Russian pair Olga Kotlyarova and Svetlana Klyuka. But Lyne finished strongly, pulling back almost 10 metres on Ukrainian Tetyana Petlyuk - who finished fourth. The 24-year-old would have been closer to the Russians entering the final straight if she hadn't allowed herself to get surrounded by her rivals on the final bend. Devonish has always kept his dignity, despite the strong criticism of the failure of British sprinters to produce the goods in recent championships. And last night, after winning Britain's first sprint individual medal since Darren Campbell was third over 100m at the 2003 World Championships, he initially claimed he was disappointed. Devonish, also third four years ago, had no answer to the devastating speed of Francis Obikwelu and Johan Wissman - who recorded Portuguese and Swedish records of 20.01sec and 20.38sec. He said: "I said before the race that if I did not medal, I would be disappointed. "So I am happy to have achieved that. "On the other hand, I must admit that after bronze in Munich, I was thinking also about the silver." | 
