European Championships: Martyn Rooney retains 400m title in Amsterdam

Martyn Rooney ran a season's best 45.04 seconds in the semi-finals in Amsterdam

Britain's Martyn Rooney retained his European 400m title with a superb performance in Amsterdam.

The 29-year-old, who won gold in Zurich in 2014, started slowly but produced a strong second 200m to win in 45.29 seconds, ahead of Czech Pavel Maslak.

Rooney failed to secure an automatic place at this summer's Olympic Games, having finished outside the top two at the British Championships last month.

But he could still be named in the squad for Rio by the British selectors.

"It is the first time I have had chance to defend a title so I am very proud to have won," Rooney told BBC Sport.

"The two boys who finished ahead of me [at the British Championships] had a fantastic championships. They deserve their places in the team.

"As much as I could do today was to win and hopefully I will get the nod. I'm sure I have done enough.

"I am double European champion. It would be very interesting not to get picked."

Jazmin Sawyers is a former Winter Youth Olympics medallist in the bobsleigh

Britain's Jazmin Sawyers, who has already qualified for Rio via her performance in the British Championships, won silver in the long jump with a leap of 6.86m, behind Ivana Spanovic of Serbia who jumped 6.94m.

Briton Danny Talbot was upgraded to 200m bronze after the Netherlands' Churandy Martina was disqualified for a lane violation.

Martina had originally completed a sprint double in front of his home fans in 20.47, with Talbot initially missing out on a medal by five hundredths of a second as he finished fourth in 20.56.

Spain's Bruno Hortelano, in 20.45, was handed gold, with Azeri-born Turk Ramil Guliyev (20.51) upgraded to silver.

Anyika Onuora won bronze in the women's 400m, edging fellow Briton Christine Ohuruogu into fourth.

Like Rooney, neither are assured of Olympic selection.

The race was won by Italy's Libania Grenot in 50.73, with France's Floria Guei second.

Asha Philip came fourth in a women's 100m race won by home favourite Dafne Schippers in a rapid time of 10.90.

Philip's fellow Brit Desiree Henry, who is aiming for the discretionary third place at Rio, did not finish the race and had to be taken off the track on a stretcher having suffered what appeared to be an abdominal injury.

In the men's 10,000m, Dewi Griffiths missed out on the Olympic qualifying standard time of 28 minutes but ran a new personal best of 28 minutes 28.55secs to finish fourth.

There was a Turkish top two in the race with Polat Kemboi Arikan winning ahead of Ali Kaya, with Spain's Antonio Abadia finishing third.

Rhys Williams, who was European champion in 2012, finished fifth in the men's 400m hurdles.

Gold went to Turkey's Yasmani Copello Escobar, who won in 48.98secs, with Spain's Sergio Fernandez second and Kariem Hussein of Switzerland third.