Neymar and his entourage are confident Barcelona will soon put together a strong cash-plus-players offer to entice Paris Saint-Germain into a sale, sources have told ESPN FC.

The Brazil international has been back with the French champions and training this week after returning late from his homeland. However, the 27-year-old has not featured in either preseason friendly in Germany against Dynamo Dresden or FC Nurnberg after he remained insistent on leaving this summer.

- When does the transfer window close?
- All major completed transfer deals
- Transfer Talk: Neymar turns to Juventus for PSG exit

Despite the confidence on Neymar's side, sporting director Leonardo confirmed on Saturday that PSG haven't yet received any formal offers from Barca for their €222 million man. However, that could only be a matter of time, with super-agent Pini Zahavi -- heavily involved in discussions -- confident that the Spanish giants will soon find the money to make the deal happen.

Sources add that Barca are remaining hopeful that Neymar's relationship with the Ligue 1 giants remains frosty and that PSG will ultimately lower their demands and make an agreement more feasible.

Leonardo recently told Le Parisien the club are aware that Barcelona are not in a strong position as buyers, and that they do not have enough money to purchase the South American without including multiple players in any potential deal.

Neymar has not travelled to Germany for either one of PSG's friendly fixtures this week, but sources say the club have made the necessary arrangements for their No. 10 to be part of their travelling party to China next week -- barring any dramatic developments.

PSG will face Inter Milan and Sydney FC in China before Rennes in the Trophee des Champions -- a match for which Neymar is suspended, although he is awaiting the results of an appeal.

ESPN's Jonathan Johnson, Julien Laurens, Sam Marsden and Joao Castelo-Branco all contributed to this report.

Former Zimbabwe batsman Grant Flower believes Zimbabwe Cricket's perpetually crisis-ridden state might have contributed to the ICC's decision to suspend them. The drastic decision, which immediately froze all payment to Zimbabwe Cricket and barred the nation from participating in ICC events, took many by surprise, particularly since this was the first time a Full Member had been sanctioned in this manner.

Flower, however, believes their lamentable track record, as well as the glacial rate of progress despite the ICC ploughing bail-out cash into the board over the years, had counted against them.

"I can understand the player's frustrations, but unfortunately with Zimbabwe cricket, it sounds like the ICC have just had enough," Flower told ESPNcricinfo. "Regarding money owed and money lent, and money the ICC gave Zimbabwe that they're probably never going to see again, it sounds like maybe they've run out of patience.

"I think over time, the ICC have just been worn down by all the corruption, the fraud, and the problems with Zimbabwe cricket not being able to get its house in order. Maybe they thought a jolt to their system would make some people realise what was expected of them. They would have reasoned Zimbabwe needed to understand that at some stage, you've got to put your house in order, and we can't keep propping you up like we have been doing over the years.

"We can go back so many years to when things were very badly run. It's pretty obvious what was happening at the time and the people responsible who were involved. And I think the current crop of players and the interim board, who are really good people, are being punished because the ICC felt they needed to take a stand."

ALSO READ: 'Do we just burn our kits and apply for jobs?' - Sikandar Raza

The most ironic, and from a Zimbabwean point of view, frustrating, point in this state of affairs is the timing of the suspension. In September 2018, former Olympic swimmer and Zimbabwe's most famous sportsperson Kirsty Coventry was appointed minister of Sports and Recreation Committee (SRC). Under her stewardship, there was a belief that a corner had been turned, and that Zimbabwe Cricket would benefit from the increased accountability the revamped SRC was expected to deliver. It was a point Flower accepted and said both the timing of the decision, as well as the consistency with which it was applied across the cricketing world, didn't quite add up for him.

"My understanding is the SRC is a public body and not exactly government," he said. "I think there's quite a big difference there and I'm surprised the media hasn't picked up on that. The SRC now is slightly more transparent. I don't know all the members, but I do know Kirsty Coventry and she's a good lady, a good person. And a few other people that are involved in it you could say the same of. So if you got someone at the top like Kirsty there, her hands might be tied in a lot of places, but there should be more good things happening than bad.

"Regarding government intervention, it's curious how the ICC have decided to interpret that. There are other countries where it's publicly stated that some of the times that certain things will be discussed and decided at government level. So I think there's quite a big contradiction there from the ICC."

"It is a sad day, and maybe some of the players are going to move on. Most of the players are still quite young, like Brendan Taylor and Kyle Jarvis, who left their county to return to Zimbabwe."

Zimbabwe cricket isn't a stranger to deep crises. Flower played a part in arguably the gravest one of all, when in 2004, he, along with 14 other white cricketers, walked out on Zimbabwe cricket after captain Heath Streak was dismissed following a disagreement over the squad's re-selection based on what Streak interpreted as unofficial racial quotas. It saw 21-year old Tatenda Taibu become captain, and an inexperienced side suffer a drastic downturn in results. One year later, they would withdraw from Test cricket for over half a decade.

Flower believed this particular bind was even graver, especially because it effectively prevented Zimbabwe from playing cricket altogether. "Even when we were leaving, there were a good bunch of youngsters coming through that could get the country's cricket going. But that's not the case anymore, with even the domestic competitions unable to take place. For it to be stopped until October at the very least, the guys are probably going to go and play in the leagues, seek a future elsewhere to try and look after their families, So yeah, I certainly think this is far worse."

An impending exodus threatens to plunge Zimbabwe cricket into further turmoil. Solomon Mire has already announced his retirement, while Sikandar Raza hinted at it in a post on Twitter and interview with ESPNcricinfo. Kyle Jarvis wryly noted that "we are not far behind you" in response to Mire's decision to quit, while, with no money to pay players, administrators and groundstaff, a secure future with the international side looks next to impossible. Flower said it was a harsh lesson Zimbabwe were learning, and hoped there could be a favourable resolution to the dispute in October.

Been a pleasure playing alongside this man over the last couple years . Enjoy retirement @kingsoly21 seems we are not too far behind you pic.twitter.com/TucyYeWwnd

— Kyle Jarvis (@KyleJarv89) July 20, 2019

"Unfortunately in Zimbabwe corruption is rife. When you live there, you get used to it. It's quite an unhealthy state of life and affairs which has become the norm. It's quite frightening, but until you live there, you don't quite actually realise that.

"The scapegoats are the players and some of the good administrators. I saw this thing on Twitter about Harare Sports club, it's a beautiful ground and at the moment it's just going to waste because no one is being paid and the staff have left. It's publicly owned by Harare Sports Club and the upkeep is paid for by Zimbabwe Cricket so unfortunately those sorts of things may just go to ruin.

"It is a sad day, and maybe some of the players are going to move on. Most of the players are still quite young, like Brendan Taylor and Kyle Jarvis, who left their county to return to Zimbabwe. They could still ply their trade elsewhere; it'd be a pity it won't be for their country of birth.

"But life goes on eh?"

For those players with no offers abroad and the hundreds of non-cricketing staff that ZC employ, even that's barely a guarantee.

Derbyshire 166 for 5 (Godleman 70*) beat Yorkshire 164 for 8 (Thompson 50, Watt 4-19) by five wickets

Yorkshire's David Willey runs in to bowl to Billy Godleman. The ball is speared down leg side and races away for five wides. On the instant a deep-throated cheer comes up from most of the supporters who ring Queen's Park. Chesterfield's festival, once threatened, always cherished, has ended in a five-wicket victory for the home side over one of their traditional rivals.

The atmosphere is festal; the air, almost tropical earlier in the day, has freshened towards evening. A jazz band will play in the beer tent later and you can be assured plenty of ale will be supped to celebrate Derbyshire beginning their Vitality Blast campaign with a win. Godleman, whose unbeaten 70 has anchored his side's innings, is applauded back to the pavilion. Home supporters are grateful their side had five balls to spare. English cricket has had enough of ties.

Visiting supporters rightly bemoan the absence of Matthew Fisher who has had to leave the field in the third over of Derbyshire's innings with a dislocated right shoulder. Fisher's left-arm pace bowling might have made 164 an even more competitive total. As it is, Yorkshire have had to bowl 11 overs of spin, not necessarily a problem on a used pitch, but a limitation on Tom Kohler-Cadmore's options. None of which worries the children who are playing games on other used wickets or the supporters enjoying the sun and wondering if Dominic Cork's arrival as T20 coach will help their side reach their first T20 Finals Day.

Yet Cork is not the first man to be interviewed when the players emerge from the pavilion and nor does Godleman win the man of the match award. That honour falls to Mark Watt, a 22-year-old slow left-armer from Edinburgh, whose four wickets for 19 runs ensured Yorkshire's array of T20 hitters never launched an uninhibited assault on the shorter boundaries around the tree-lined ground.

"Meet George Stephenson" suggested one flyer outside the restaurant at Queen's Park this lunchtime. "Meet a medieval surgeon," urged another as the custodians of Chesterfield's museum placed even greater faith in the power of time travel or the credulousness of the town's tourists. We will never know how many of the five-and-a-half thousand souls who crammed into one of England most famous outgrounds took the tourist board up on their offers. But to judge from the folk queueing up for the post-match signing session quite a few people were interested in meeting Watt.

One could see their point. Victories over Yorkshire are treasured occasions in these parts and Watt's wickets on his Derbyshire debut did more than anything to set up his side's triumph. Nor were Watt's victims death-over donations. Brought into the attack in the sixth over from the Pavilion End, he removed Willey, Harry Brook, Gary Ballance and Nicholas Pooran to leave Yorkshire on 77 for 6 after 11.3 overs of their innings.

At that point Watt's accuracy and subtle changes of length and pace looked to have done enough to ensure his team would be chasing a low total. Ballance, bowled when reverse-sweeping, and Pooran, hitting the seventh ball of his Yorkshire career straight to long-off, had given him all the assistance he needed.

But the visitors were rescued by Jordan Thompson, whose maiden first-team fifty included five crowd-scattering sixes. Thompson put on 66 in less than seven overs with Jonny Tattersall before he skied Logan van Beek to wicketkeeper Daryn Smit in the penultimate over. Tattersall's canny 39 off 31 balls and Fisher's big six in the final over saw Yorkshire to 164, a plainly defendable total on a used pitch. Fisher's day, however, was about to get very much worse when he dived to prevent a boundary and stood up clutching his shoulder.

In time, of course, so did Yorkshire's, although Dom Bess's removal of Luis Reece and Wayne Madsen, both leg before wicket, kept the result in doubt. Yet at no point in Derbyshire's innings did they lose control of their pursuit and scoring eight runs an over is a familiar task for batsmen as experienced as Godleman. Leus du Plooy helped when he got inside the line of Bess's final over and whacked two sixes to the right of the Norway maple. Du Plooy was caught at short third man off Thompson for 30 but Matthew Critchley maintained the momentum towards what is Derbyshire's fifth successive T20 win over Yorkshire.

And maybe visiting supporters sporting their Leeds and Sheffield United shirts should not have been too surprised. Yorkshire have not won a T20 game at Chesterfield since 2014 and home fans clearly arrived ready to drink deeply whatever the outcome. Even the school bus was a bar. Well, it is the end of term.

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland -- With weather forecasts calling for heavy rain and very strong wind gusts on Sunday, the R&A has moved up the tee times by an hour for the final round of the 148th Open Championship at Royal Portrush Golf Club.

The R&A moved up the first tee times to 2:32 a.m. ET, with the leaders going off at 8:47 a.m. ET.

Players battled inclement weather earlier in the week, but the conditions for Saturday's third round were largely benign, with 30 of the 73 players in the field shooting under par.

"Weather looks pretty poor from about 9 a.m. onward [on Sunday]," said Englishman Danny Willett, who shot 6-under 65 on Saturday to move into the top 10. "Then this place will grow some teeth again. ...

"If [the weather] is what is forecast tomorrow -- 10-, 15-mph winds and raining -- this place will be a completely different kettle of fish. Just have to go to bed and wake up and see."

The forecast from the Met Office, the national weather service in Northern Ireland, on Sunday calls for "persistent and occasionally heavy rain during the afternoon and evening" with winds at 15 mph and gusts at 25 mph. There's a 40% chance of gusts as strong as 35 mph after 11 a.m. ET.

"It will be hard," said Xander Schauffele, who sits at 5-under after firing a 2-under 69 on Saturday. "If it's normal wind, the hard holes play really difficult. There's about six birdie holes, and everything else is holding on for dear life."

In the first major of the season, at the Masters in April, Augusta National Golf Club officials moved up the Sunday tee times and had players tee off on Nos. 1 and 10 in threesomes because of the threat of severe thunderstorms.

PORTRUSH, Northern Ireland -- The cheers grew louder and Shane Lowry kept getting better Saturday in the Open Championship.

The Irishman made two straight birdies around the turn at Royal Portrush to break out of a four-way tie, and Lowry later made three straight birdies to walk off the Dunluce Links with an 8-under 63 -- the 54-hole record (197) at the Open Championship.

He has a four-shot lead over Tommy Fleetwood.

With favorite son Rory McIlroy having failed to make the cut at Northern Ireland's first major since 1951, Lowry filled the void just fine.

He didn't mind the lack of attention, which instead was showered on the trio of Ulstermen -- McIlroy, Graeme McDowell and Darren Clarke at the start of the week.

"Those guys are from here; I grew up four hours away," said Lowry, who opened the tournament with 100-1 odds of winning at Caesars Sportsbook in Las Vegas. "I felt like I could come here and come under the radar. I'm not quite under the radar anymore. I didn't feel like a forgotten Irishman. But hopefully, I'm the one they're talking about tomorrow evening."

He was at 13-under 197, breaking by one the 54-hole record held by Tom Lehman at Royal Lytham & St. Annes in 1996.

Low scoring was helped by a day that ended in relative calm, perhaps ahead of the storm. The forecast for Sunday is so nasty that the R&A moved up the tee times by one hour in a bid to avoid the worst of heavy rain and gusts expected to top 35 mph.

There's also the chance of an internal storm brewing in Lowry.

This is the second time he has had a four-shot lead going into the final round of a major. The other time was in the 2016 U.S. Open at Oakmont. Lowry closed with a 76 as Dustin Johnson rallied for his only major.

The pressure for Lowry figures to be even greater this time around as he goes for a silver Claret Jug on the Emerald Isle.

The only golfer to blow multiple leads of four or more strokes after 54 holes of a major is Greg Norman.

Fleetwood did his part with a bogey-free 66, and he lost ground. He at least got into the final group as he goes for his first major.

"You have to look at it realistically," Fleetwood said. "I had a great day today. I had one of the best rounds of the day, and I was bogey-free. Shane just played great, and I'm four back. But that's it. I'm just happy with how I played."

J.B. Holmes, who started the third round tied with Lowry atop the leaderboard, tried to stay with him until he dropped two straight shots in the middle of the back nine. A birdie on the 18th gave him a 69, leaving him six back.

Still on the fringe of contention was a familiar face in the majors -- Brooks Koepka. He couldn't get enough putts to fall for the third straight day and still managed a 67, leaving him seven back.

"Nobody has hit it better than me this week," said Koepka, who posted his 11th round in the 60s at a major this year. "I've hit it as good as I could possibly imagine. I putted the worst in the entire field.

"It's been really bad. Very frustrating. Disappointed. But thankfully, [the wind is] going to blow tomorrow to have any sort of chance. I need to figure out the putter."

Justin Rose had a 68 and joined Koepka at 9-under 204, figuring that's just enough to at least stay in the conversation.

Behind him, Lowry, who teamed with McIlroy for Irish golf when they won the European Amateur Championship in 2007, kept widening the gap.

The pin was back right on the par-3 16th known as "Calamity Corner" because it drops off some 50 feet right off the green. He sent that tee shot onto the green and right at the flag until it settled about 10 feet away.

From the light rough to the left of the fairway on the 17th, Lowry hit a perfect chip-and-run to 3 feet for his final birdie. Holmes drove down the hill short of the green, close enough to use putter. He ran it about 8 feet by, and when it caught the lip and spun away, Holmes dropped the putter in disbelief.

Some of that surely was the frustration of seeing Lowry getting further and further away from him.

Lowry, who won the Abu Dhabi HSBC Championship on the European Tour earlier this year, can't think of a better day he's ever had on the golf course. His 63 was the 13th at The Open -- one stroke short of the major championship record that Branden Grace set at Royal Birkdale in 2017.

The support was more than he could have imagined.

"Every time I had a putt today," Lowry said, "I wanted to hole it so I could hear that roar."

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

New York Yankees slugger Luke Voit left the team's game against the Colorado Rockies after being hit in the face by a pitch.

Voit was hit by a 91.4 mph pitch from Chad Bettis in the bottom of the fourth inning and initially remained in the game.

He eventually scored from third on a Gleyber Torres single to give the Yankees a 9-0 lead at the time, but he was lifted at the top of the sixth inning. New York went on to win 11-5.

DJ LeMahieu moved from third base to replace Voit at first, while Gio Urshela entered the game to take over at third.

Voit was tested for a concussion, but he has been cleared, and no further testing is planned.

Cooperstown's Class of 2019 rewards the Hall of Fame-worthy careers of a diverse group of players and contributors to the greatness of the game. New York Yankees closer Mariano Rivera became the first unanimous selection by voters for the National Baseball Hall of Fame. Mariners slugger Edgar Martinez cashed in on his last year on the main ballot, gaining recognition for his tremendous production as his era's signature designated hitter. Starting pitchers Roy Halladay and Mike Mussina both got into the Hall, Mussina in recognition of his extended excellence, Halladay for his exceptional peak performance.

But they are not this weekend's only inductees. The Today's Game Committee of the Hall of Fame is the current variant on the Veterans Committee that was charged with recognizing past players not voted in by members of the Baseball Writers Association of America, and this year they elected two men -- closer Lee Smith, who long held the all-time saves record before he was surpassed by Rivera and Hall of Famer Trevor Hoffman; and DH Harold Baines, who was seen by many for much of the '80s how Martinez was at the position in the '90s.

This weekend's festivities will also include the induction of sportswriter Jayson Stark, this year's winner of the J.G. Taylor Spink Award for "for meritorious contributions to baseball writing," including his many years as a columnist at ESPN.

Live from Cooperstown, here's what we're seeing this weekend:

Saturday, July 20

Sprinter Amy Hunt comfortably wins 200m as 800m runner Isabelle Boffey and hurdler Josh Zeller also take titles on Saturday at European U20 Champs

Three gold medals for British athletes highlighted the third day of action at the European Athletics Under-20 Championships in Borås, Sweden.

Isabelle Boffey (800m), Amy Hunt (200m) and Josh Zeller (110m hurdles) were crowned European champions on a day when the team collected four other medals: Amber Anning (silver, 400m), Josh Lay (bronze, 1500m), Keely Hodgkinson (bronze, 800m) and Lucy-Jane Matthews (bronze, 110m hurdles).

It was difficult to see beyond Hunt when looking for a potential winner of the 200m. The recent-setter of a world under-18 record of 22.42, she came into the championships more than three quarters of a second quicker than anyone else in her age group on the continent this year. She duly delivered with a winning time of 22.94 into a 1.7m/sec headwind.

The 17-year-old had only a slight lead coming off the bend but powered away for victory by a massive margin of 0.66 seconds. France’s Gemima Joseph came in next and Belgium’s Lucie Ferauge clocked 23.63 for bronze.

Hunt, who all being well will be part of Britain’s quartet in the 4x100m on the final day of the championships on Sunday, said: “I had an amazing start for once, really powered around the first bit of the bend and tried to maintain it in the second half and I really went for it down the home straight. I could hear my name being screamed, which is really special – it was really awesome.

“It is incredible. It has been a quick turnaround but a great learning curve. I have learnt a lot about myself and how my recovery works and the team that support me.”

The other Brit in the final, Georgina Adam, was fifth in 23.75. Hannah Kelly went out in the semi-final earlier in the day after clocking 23.76 for sixth.

In the women’s 800m Boffey was a convincing winner in a PB by nearly a second of 2:02.92. After Switzerland’s Delia Sclabas took them through the bell in 60.93 and held a decent lead at 500m, Boffey reeled her in and went away to add to her European under-18 title in 2016.

Boffey’s team-mate, Keely Hodgkinson, also came back at Sclabas but, after a tense battle, was unable to pass her in the home straight. Sclabas was just four hundredths in front as Hodgkinson could nevertheless be happy with a PB of 2:03.40 and bronze. The European youth champion is still an under-18 and has two years in the junior age group after this.

Britain’s Sarah Calvert was seventh in a PB of 2:05.68.

Reacting to her win, Boffey said: “I am buzzing. It was such a good race and I am so happy with myself that I went for it in the last 250m because it paid off. I knew someone was going to go for it and she (Sclabas) did but I knew if I ran my own race I could challenge with my kick.”

Zeller completed a great display of hurdling as he clocked 13.39 to come home well clear. Netherlands’ Mark Heiden was second with a PB of 13.58 and France’s Paul Chabauty was third in 13.64. Zeller (below) said: “I feel great. I came here for that gold medal and it feels so amazing to have gone and done what I have been thinking about for however many months. It feels amazing.

“Yesterday my race was technically better but it doesn’t matter because everything I put out on the track there did the job. At a championships like this it isn’t always about times but who crosses that line first. I did that today and I am going to be going home with a gold around my neck.”

Neutral athlete Polina Miller, the pre-race favourite, took gold in the 400m in 51.72 as GB’s Anning impressively took silver. After her strong finish, her 52.18 lifted her to third on the UK all-time under-20 list. Not since 1982 has a British junior run as quick. Britain’s Louise Evans (54.06) was seventh.

In the 1500m, Lay agonisingly missed out on gold after having what appeared to be a winning lead with 100m to go. He was in front at the bell and powered away over the next 200m, but Portugal’s Nuno Pereira led the chase and passed him with 10m remaining.

The winning time was 3:55.85 as Netherlands’ Robin van Riel came by on the Brit’s inside for silver in 3:56.03. Lay, who was fastest on this season’s times held on for the medal in 3:56.20.

Matthews had the race of her life as she claimed bronze in the 100m hurdles in a UK under-18 best of 13.38. The youngest athlete in the field was 0.13 under her previous PB.

Sweden’s Tilde Johansson was a clear winner, taking more than two tenths from her PB with 13.16. The home nation favourite could leave the stadium on Sunday with a second gold as she lines up in the long jump as favourite.

In the hammer, Britain’s Charlotte Williams held a medal position until round four, but eventually placed fourth behind winner Valeriya Ivanenko of Ukraine (65.83m). Williams threw 61.24m in the first round but ultimately could not match Germany’s Samantha Borutta (63.53m) and Hungary’s Zsannett Nemeth (61.99m) for the final medals. Her team-mate Charlotte Payne was seventh with 59.61m.

Britain had high hopes in the men’s 200m, but Joe Ferguson, who was second on the season rankings, could not take his place in the semi-final on Saturaday morning due to a calf injury he sustained in his heat on Friday. Ireland’s Aaron Sexton thus went into the final as favourite but was marginally run out of the medals in fourth in 21.18. Gold went to Netherlands’ Onyema Adigida in 21.08 as Germany’s Elias Goer (21.16) took silver. Third was Italy’s Mattia Donola in 21.18 while Britain’s Praise Olatoke was fifth in 21.21.

Germany’s Paula Schneiders upstaged her team-mate and the pre-race favourite to win the women’s 3000m steeplechase. She ran a PB of 10:08.66 as Claire Palou set a French junior record of 10:12.31 in coming through strongly for silver. Germany’s Josia Papenfuss, the fastest junior in Europe this year, was third in 10:12.42. Britain’s Holly Page was ninth in 10:29.98.

In the 3000m, Germany’s Elias Schrebl took victory after leading a group of four who were together at the bell, clocking 8:16.07. Serbia’s Milos Malesevic was second in 8:16.68 and Turkey’s Omer Amactan was third 8:17.51 as the first four set PBs. Britain’s Max Heyden was fifth with 8:18.73 and team-mate Ben West was 12th in 8:26.03.

Italy’s Edoardo Scotti, who was fourth at last year’s World Under-20 Championships, clocked 45.85 to win the 400m. Britain’s Ethan Brown finished strongly but had to be content with fifth in 46.45, just one hundredth outside his PB.

Long-time decathlon leader Simon Ehammer wrapped up the title, ending with a Swiss junior record of 7851. That put him 151 points ahead of Netherlands’ Leon Mak, while Britain’s Joel McFarlane (7203) and Jack Turner (7040) were 14th and 18th respectively. McFarlane added to his two PBs from yesterday with another in the hurdles, running 15.12.

Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh (below) took high jump gold with 1.92m. After adding to golds in the world and European under-18 championships over the past two years, she had three tries at a world junior record height to 2.02m and was close on one attempt. Neutral athlete Adelina Khalikova took silver with 1.90m, the best by a European under-18 athlete this year. Another neutral athlete, Natalya Spiridonova, filled the bronze medal position with 1.87m.

Norway’s Pal Haugen Lillefosse cleared a best of 5.41m to take pole vault gold. With silver going to Ukraine’s Ilya Kravchenko (5.31m), France’s Robin Emig (5.31m) won bronze. Rankings leader Matthias Orban of France was just fifth with a clearance of 5.11m.

On the triple jump runway, Spiridoula Karidi went out to a Greek record 14.00m in the first round, adding 36cm to her PB and was not caught. Bulgaria’s Aleksandra Nacheva took silver on 13.81m and Latvia’s Ruta Lasmane the bronze with 13.48m.

There was massive disappointment for the British team in the 400m hurdles for men as Alistair Chalmers, by far the quickest in Europe in the age group this year, was disqualified at the semi-final stage for running outside of his lane. Britain’s Seamus Derbyshire did win his heat, however, as he clocked 51.30, but Sweden’s Carl Bengtstrom won the other semi in 50.71 and will go into the final as favourite.
Britain’s Marcey Winter safely progressed through to the final of the women’s 400m hurdles, qualifying automatically in second in her heat with 58.67.

GB’s Sarah Omoregie made it through to the final of the shot put, seventh best in qualifying with 15.10m. However, team-mate Serena Vincent, with a best of 14.21m, didn’t make the cut.

After finishing fourth in the heptathlon on Friday, Holly Mills safely progressed to the final of the long jump, registering a best of 6.28m. That put her fourth best as Italy’s Larissa Iapichino led the qualifiers with 6.50m. Fellow Brit Josie Oliarnyk went through as 10th best with 6.12m.

Britain’s 4x400m relay squads had mixed results in the semi-finals. The women’s quartet of Natasha Harrison, Maisey Snaith, Nayanna Dubarry-Gay and Hannah Foster were second in their heat behind Poland with 3:39.84

The GB men’s quartet, after runs from Lewis Davey, Callum Dodds and Ben Hawkes, led on the final leg of their heat. However, their campaign to an end as Michael Fagbenie pulled up injured after 70m. France were quickest overall with 3:09.96.