Briton’s opening throw lands historic bronze while Alekna breaks championships record on his way to European discus title

When Lawrence Okoye released the discus in the opening round of the European Championships final in Munich, he knew it was good. “It felt great straight away,” smiled the 30-year-old of an effort which reached 67.14m.

It represented his biggest throw in a decade and was good enough, in fact, to land him third place and win Great Britain’s first medal in the event in the entire history of these championships. The tears flowed from a man who burst on to the scene at the London 2012 Olympics but then left the sport to pursue an NFL career in America.

His subsequent return to throwing has not been without its problems due to a variety of injury issues, but a Commonwealth silver medal in Birmingham provided proof that form and rhythm – so crucial in his event ­– were returning.

In the Munich Olympic stadium it all came together as he took an early lead. Okoye was ultimately overtaken by a championships record of 69.78m from Mykolas Alekna which took the gold, while world champion Kristjan Čeh won silver with 68.28m.

The Briton, however, was more than happy with his evening’s work.

“It’s been a tough year for me in a lot of ways and to do what I did today just meant the world to me. It’s not something that I can describe. To medal in this field after some of the things I’ve been experiencing, I couldn’t really hold it back.

“Everybody that throws discus knows I’ve had a big throw in me for a long time and it felt great to get it out. Obviously I wish I could have gone a bit further but this is hopefully the start of big things for me.

“I think the Commonwealths showed me what’s possible and it opened my eyes to a whole new world. Being on that podium, there’s no feeling like it and I just wanted to get back there again. I said back then that would be a breakthrough moment for me and it looks like it has been.”

Alekna was carrying on the family tradition, the Lithuanian winning the European crown which his father Virgilijus had won 16 years ago. At 19, he is also the first teenager to win a medal in this event, let along the gold.

Čeh appeared set to win his second major championships of the year after moving into the lead after second and third round throws of 67.62m and then 67.81m, respectively. He reached 68.28m in the fifth round, but that was the stage at which Alekna wrote his name into the history books.