Promising young runner Matthew Stonier earned an impressive fifth-placed finish at the European Athletics Championships on Thursday.

After a rain-delayed start to the evening session in Munich, Germany, the 20-year-old from Sturry, near Canterbury, finished strongly to come home in 3min35.97sec.

The 1,500m race was won by Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen in a championship record 3:32.76 while Stonier’s British team-mate Jake Heyward claimed his first senior medal, coming second. A third Brit, Neil Gourley, finished eighth in 3:38.40.

With Stonier having come seventh at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham amid his rapid rise, the former King’s School student’s performance surpassed even his own expectations.

“Top-eight I would be really happy with,” said the Invicta East Kent runner, who studies at Loughborough University, before the race.

“Making the top-eight in a major final is the GB standard and that might help with funding, moving forwards.

“With Jakob in the race, it might be quite quick. So that might help show Birmingham was not a one-off.

“That [success for Stonier] doesn’t necessarily mean going for the win or the podium. Jakob is in his own league but the rest of the field is quite open.

“As long as I can run tactically quite well, hopefully, I will be involved in some way or another.”

Stonier had qualified for the final by coming fifth on Monday in his heat.