European Championships silver helps Tawney to feel much better

It was the third time the championships had been held at the venue, with Tawney returning to the scene of her first appearance in 2003.

The championships were held over six days with Great Britain taking a more than 250 athletes to the coastal town.

However, despite having fought her way back to fitness following three months out with a back injury, Tawney was struck down by a bug in the days approaching the event and was just pleased to make the starting line for the 3,000m on the first day.

Despite her less than ideal preparation, she ran a solid race to finish seventh in 11min 35.59sec, a second slower than her run at the BritishChampionships.

The race was won by Italy’s Nadia Dandolo in 10:44.10.

Tawney did not feel well enough to run the heats of the 800m the following day but had made a full recovery by the end of the week.

However, her decision to take part in the cross country was a last-minute one.

“Due to a timetable clash it wasn’t possible to run the 1500m and the cross country as they were at similar times on the final day,” said Tawney.

“I chose to run the cross country as we had a team.”

The 5k event, which was held at the racecourse five miles out of town, proved especially tough going with divots from horse’s hoofs and a temperature of 22 degrees.

The race was won by a home athlete Maria Pedrosa in 20min 19sec, with Great Britain’s Jill Harrison taking bronze.

Tawney was the second of her team’s counters, crossing the line ninth in 21:47, with Scottish athlete Sharyn Ramage coming home 11th to help Great Britain finish second behind Spain, with Italy third.