Teenager Greg Rutherford showed there is light at the end of the tunnel for British long-jumping as he won Great Britain's first medal - a silver - at the European Championships.

His older teammates Nathan Morgan and Chris Tomlinson have hinted at the potential to succeed at world-class level, but have failed to produce the big jumps when it has mattered most.

Last night in Gothenburg Rutherford showed he is the man for the future.

The 19-year-old from Milton Keynes, who won last summer's European junior title, has matured tremendously since that success.

After injuries and some erratic form, everything came together in Gothenburg's Ullevi stadium as Rutherford clinched a medal with his closing leap.

Lying third after a second-round clearance of 8.03metres, he saved his best for last with a jump of 8.13m.

The clearance fell short of his recent personal best of 8.26m, but it significantly took him a centimetre clear of Russia's Oleksiy Lukashevych.

It also meant Rutherford finished just seven centimetres behind world junior champion Andrew Howe, who won the gold medal for Italy.

Not since took Lyn Davies took silver in Budapest in 1969 had a British athlete won a long-jump medal at the European Championships. Davies, also the 1964 Olympic champion and 1966 European gold medallist, presented Rutherford with his medal.

He said: "I'm chuffed. I don't think people thought I could hack the pressure. People saw me as up-and-coming and didn't think I was mature enough. This proves I can go out and do it."

A former Aston Villa trialist, Rutherford's great-grandfather Jock Rutherford played 11 international football matches for England between 1904-08.

Tomlinson and Morgan - on a night when they were completely overshadowed by Rutherford - failed to make the the last eight cut, finishing ninth and 11th with distances of 7.74m and 7.65m.

Kelly Sotherton, lying second until the penultimate contest of the heptathlon, blew her hopes of a medal with a disastrous throw of just 30.05m metres in the javelin.

Sotherton always knew the event was the likeliest to let her down and even after lifetime bests in the 100m hurdles, shot put and 200m, it did so once again.

That well below par effort wrecked her hopes of adding further success to her Olympic bronze a nd Commonwealth Games gold medals, just as it did last August at the World Championships.

Sotherton, with a score of 6,290 points, finished in seventh place, a mere three points ahead of European junior champion Jessica Ennis, who with another personal best, has made massive progress this year.

Louise Hazel, still just 20 and another great hope for the future, also set a personal best score of 5,894pts for 17th position.

"I have to find a solution to the javelin and it's being sorted as from tomorrow," said Sotherton. "I've had a back injury but it's not an excuse. I put myself on the line and it didn't work."

Home favourite Carolina Kluft won with a championship record score of 6,740 in front of an adoring Swedish crowd.

The defending champion finished well ahead of Karin Ruckstuhl who posted a Dutch record of 6,423, with Germany's Lilli Schwarzkopf scoring 6,420 for third spot.

There was no dream comeback for Dwain Chambers, hoping after his championship success four years ago to win the 100m gold medal legally.

He was recently stripped of the gold when he admitted he achieved his victory in Munich with the assistance of the designer drug, THG.

The reformed drug cheat drifted back to seventh and two places behind Mark Lewis-Francis who also failed to make an impact as Portugal's Francis Obikwelu won in a championship record 9.99 seconds.

The Norwich Union GB team will now be hoping Tim Benjamin and Natasha Danvers-Smith can add to Rutherford's lone medal when the championships continue today.

Benjamin goes in the 400m final tonight, but struggled to clinch a place when he finished a disappointing fourth in his semi-final. He clocked a time of 45.67secs as France's Leslie Djhone, favourite for the gold medal, cruised to 45.23.

Danvers-Smith made her 400m hurdles final when placing third in a time of 55.14sec. But she faces a tough final, with Olympic champion Fani Halkia among others, in tremendous form.

Becky Lyne who will line-up in the 800m tomorrow showed the determination in her semi-final that clearly suggests she will fight every inch of the way to win a medal. The former European Under-23 champion ran a competent semi-final in a time of 1min 59.11secs, a stride behind Svetlana Klyuka, to guarantee her place.