European Championships: Paul Robinson fourth in 1500m final

Paul Robinson with Irish team-mate Ciaran O'Lionaird after the 1500m final in Zurich

Paul Robinson narrowly missed out on a medal in the 1500m final at the European Championships as he finished fourth in Zurich.

Ireland's 4x400m men's relay squad also produced a great run as they finished fifth in their final and improved their national record to 3:01.67.

Robinson's team-mate Ciaran O'Lionaird fell on lap three of the 1500m final.

Controversial Frenchman Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad took the gold as Briton's Chris O'Hare won bronze.

Mekhissi-Benabbad was disqualified after finishing first in the 3,000m steeplechase final on Thursday night for taking his shirt off in the closing 100m.

Once again, the Frenchman was celebrating his success long before the finish line in Sunday's race but he kept his garments on on this occasion to secure the gold.

Mekhissi-Benabbad, clearly hugely motivated after Thursday's episode, burst into the lead at the start of the final lap to forge a 20-metre lead and never looked like being caught.

Corkman O'Lionaird was near the front of the field after the pedestrian opening 800m when he appeared to be spiked before a further collision saw him sprawled on the track holding his hamstring.

The slow early pace meant that Mekhissi-Benabbad's winning time was only 3:45.60 with Norway's defending champion Henrik Ingebrigtsen taking silver in 3:46.10, O'Hare clocking 3:46.18 and Robinson just out of the medals in 3:46.46.

Robinson looked on course for a medal with 80 metres to go but the Briton produced a fast-finish to overhaul the Irishman.

In the 4x400m relay final, Ireland opted to draft 800m bronze medallist Mark English into their quartet instead of Brian Murphy and the Irish team went on cut a remarkable 1.90 seconds off the national record set in Saturday's semi-final.

After Brian Gregan's excellent opening leg, the Irish dropped to seventh spot after English's lap but third-leg man Richard Morrissey then produced a superb run to move the squad up to sixth with 400m left.

And as had been the case on Saturday, Thomas Barr produced a brilliant final leg as the Irish held off Germany to finish fifth with the highly-rated Belgians in sixth.

Britain took gold in 2:58.79 with Russia, Poland and France also going under the three-minute barrier.