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Rooney safely through to Euro semi-finals

Martyn Rooney was in second gear during the heats © Getty Images

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European Championships: Day One in pictures

Martyn Rooney looked in good shape as he breezed into the men's 400m semi-finals at the European Athletics Championships on Tuesday.

Rooney is Great Britain's premier male 400m runner in Barcelona, having finished sixth in the 2008 Olympic final. The 23-year-old has previously picked up a World Championships silver medal in the 4x400m relay, but he is still chasing his first major individual medal.

Starting in the outside lane, he was never expected to struggle in the heats, particularly in a race that was won in a relaxed time of 45.71s. Rooney came home second in 45.72s, having kept an eye on his rivals throughout the home straight.

"I'm here to win - as simple as that," Rooney said. "It's there to be won so I should go in with high hopes. I ran to 300m today and then I stopped running. I did what I had to do. I think it's the first two that get the better lanes for the semis so that's what I needed to do."

Joining Rooney in the next round are fellow Brits Conrad Williams and Michael Bingham. Williams did not look comfortable as he strained for third place in the day's fourth heat, finishing in a time of 46.34s, but Bingham certainly has plenty more to give after he roared to a time of 45.49s in the final qualifier.

Ireland's David Gillick is also through, after he comfortably led home the third heat of the competition. Gillick recorded a winning time of 45.84.

The men's 400m semi-finals take place on Wednesday evening.

In the women's 400m hurdles, Perri Shakes-Drayton is safely through to the semi-finals after finishing second in her morning heat. Clocking a time of 55.35s, the British athlete had plenty more in the tank and will join Eilidh Child in Wednesday's semi-final line-up.

Russian's Stanislav Emelyanov claimed the first gold medal of the Championships, winning the men's 20km walk in a time of 1h:20m.10s. Italy's Alex Schwazer and Portugal's Joao Vieira claimed silver and bronze.

Meanwhile, a familiar face was back in action - former Olympic heptathlon champion Carolina Kluft. The Swede, a three-time world and two-time European champion, retired from the mult-event in 2008 but was competing in the long jump, where she scraped into the final with a season's best 6.62m.

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