BURTON SALMON sprinter Bryan Shearsmith guided Britain to a silver success at the European Veterans' Athletics Championships in Potsdam, Germany - but almost missed his flight home in the process.

Shersmith, 61, a former St Peter's School pupil, ran the opening leg for the Brits in the Men's 60-65 4x400metres and, with John Ross, Max Hamlyn and Robert Sheridan, the team took silver medal in 4 mins 14.06 secs.

But the timing of the race and the departure of Shearsmith's flight home meant the former York RI and Unicorns rugby union player had to head straight off to the airport, leaving one of his team-mates to pick up his medal.

"I almost just slipped on my tracksuit bottoms and kept running to catch my plane," Shearsmith told the Evening Press.

"The race started at 2pm, while my flight left at 5.30pm, so I had to leave someone else to pick up my medal and pass it on."

However, Shearsmith's bags for the trip back were still weighed down with a little bit of silver, the talented sprinter having anchored the 60-65 4x100m team home in second earlier in the day

Shearsmith, who is sponsored by York strongman Rob Dixon, teamed up with Ross, Phil Johnson and Barry Ferguson to record a time of 51.93secs for the 4x100m relay.

Updated: 11:01 Saturday, September 14, 2002