A TORN hamstring and just one hundredth of a second robbed Christian Malcolm of his European Indoor 200m crown as Poland's Marcin Urbas took gold in Vienna.

On the last bend, Malcolm's hamstring went, but he lost his European indoor crown in the last three strides as Urbas came past him to win by the narrowest possible margin as they both dipped for the line.

Urbas took gold with a time of 20.64 secs as Malcolm ran 20.65, but had he been able to recapture the 20.58 secs form he ran in Birmingham a fortnight ago, gold would have been his.

Britain's Daniel Caines took fourth behind Pole Robert Mackowiak, while Newport's Doug Turner failed to qualify for the final.

The 22-year-old from Maindee said he was 'gutted' to have lost, but having suffered a sore throat going into the final, plus the hamstring injury, Malcolm still showed plenty of courage to win one of five medals Britain won on Saturday.

But having won silver in Vienna, in addition to the World indoors silver he won in Lisbon last spring, Malcolm is far from happy with coming second and says 'things are going to change'.

He said: "I'm gutted, but no excuses, the best man won on the day. "There are going to be some changes, the pain of coming fifth in Edmonton (at the World Championships) as well as losing out here means something is going to change this summer.

"I couldn't believe it was so close." The injury rules Malcolm out of next weekend's international in Glasgow and keeps him out of competition until he flies out to Australia for warm-weather training on March 19. He said: "It's a slight tear, I thought it was going to blow completely on the bend, but when I got to the straight it felt alright and I knew I'd make the line. "Only when I got to the dashes did I see him (Urbas) there and he took it in the last three strides.

"No one should ever catch me in the last 30 metres, I'm a strong finisher and I wasn't able to kick off the bend like I wanted to.

"I just want to get myself sorted now, I was low after Lievin (where he lost to Doug Turner who was later disqualified), but Saturday proved I can run 20.20 secs times this season, the last thirty metres wasn't me running out there."

Urbas had been growing in confidence every round and ran a new Polish national record of 20.55 secs in his semi-final and he could not hide his delight at taking gold. He said: "I gave everything I could. It was a very hard fight. At the end, I wanted to be first, but also get a good time.

"I hope I can repeat the success this summer."