A much-improved last-day performance by Great Britain at the European Championships saw them beat the premeeting target of 11 medals set by UK Athletics performance director Dave Collins.

Whilst the gold medal won by the 4x100m relay team was the icing on the cake for Collins, officials will take great heart from the number of medals won by younger athletes.

Mo Farah's second place in the 5,000m was matched by the men's 4x400m and women's 4x100m relay quartet, along with the unexpected bronze in the 800m by Sam Ellis.

Farah showed massive self-confidence when he hit the front with just over 200m left in a tough encounter against far more experienced rivals.

The determined 23-year-old Somalia-born runner almost pulled off what would have been a magnificent victory but Spain's Jesus Espana finished very quickly in the home straight and shaded him on the line by just-one hundredth of a second in 13 minutes 44.70 seconds.

Farah said: "I'm only a little disappointed. I lost by a small margin and must be happy with the championships, the whole season and my progress."

Ireland's Alistair Cragg saw his hopes vanish because of a knee injury. South African-born Cragg looked set to add another European title to the 3,000m indoor crown he won in Madrid 18 months ago.

With just over three laps remaining, Europe's fastest performer this summer moved positively to the front of the field and began to rapidly increase the pace, but shortly afterwards Cragg pulled up and stepped off the track, with his hopes of winning Ireland's first gold medal disappearing.

The GB women's relay squad exceeded expectations in the first track race of the day, when they finished second behind Russia by 0.80secs in a time of 43.51secs.

The quartet of Anyika Onuora, Emma Ania, Emily Freeman and Joice Maduaka, who only made the final as fastest losers, produced some really tight baton-changing in the wet conditions.

"This year we have an excellent team spirit, there is perfect harmony," said Maduaka, unlucky not to have won a 100m medal earlier in the week.

"I was especially determined to get one," said the 32-year-old Foreign and Commonwealth Office worker, who receives no financial support from the National Lottery.

Ellis was a revelation in his final and showed no respect for his bunched rivals in the last ten metres, when barging through the tiniest of gaps to finish behind Bram Som and David Fiegen.

Not surprisingly, there was an official protest at his tactics from this year's European No 1 Dmitrijs Milkevics of Latvia, beaten for the bronze by just 0.06secs by the Yorkshireman who clocked 1min 46.64secs.

But to the delight of the 24-year-old Barnsley man, who was running only his second race for his country, it was overruled by the jury of appeal.

"My expectation of a medal was very low," said Ellis, who ran a poor first-round heat when trying to win it with a front- running display. "My tactics were to sit in the inside of the group and wait and see."

The men's 4x400m squad of Robert Tobin, Rhys Williams, Graham Hedman and Tim Benjamin may not have scored a sixth successive champion-ship victory for the British squad but they gave winners France and third-placed Poland a run for their money when picking up silver in 3:01.63.

Benjamin, after an injury-ruined year, clocked a sensational 44.4secs split on his anchor leg which saw the French win the gold medal by just 0.53secs.

The Welshman said: "When I started my finish, I saw the Polish guy was looking tired, so I increased my speed and was sure the silver would come to us but gold was our aim."