Sean Baldock boosted his chances of going to the Olympics despite a disastrous finish by the Great Britain team in the Spar European Cup in Poland.

The Hastings sprinter continued his comeback from a season disrupted by injury and ill-health in the 4x400m relay.

The team, consisting of Baldock, Tim Benjamin, Chris Rawlinson and Daniel Caines, had the chance to give the GB men the overall title as they went into the race in third place, just 1.5 points off leaders France.

But Rawlinson tripped on the third leg changeover, leaving Britain to finish in fifth place and third overall.

The race was a success for Baldock, however, because he completed his first leg split in an impressive 45.4secs.

Coach Mark Gregory said: "It was a very good time because the first leg is so difficult to run. That is the sort of time we have been working towards, so I'm very pleased with it."

Michael East, who is virtually guaranteed a place in the Olympics, continued his good form by finishing second in the 1,500m.

The Commonwealth champion, who is part of Mark Rowland's training group at the Broadbridge Heath Leisure Centre, clocked 3min.49.53secs, just behind Mehdi Baala of France (3min.48.13secs).

Mick Jones admitted he was embarrassed by his seventh placed finish in the hammer, but is still optimistic he can reach the Olympic qualifying standard.

The Crawley-based thrower managed a distance of 68.56m, some way off the winner Szymon Ziolkowski of Poland, who threw 77.27m.

Meanwhile, Paula Radcliffe made a triumphant return to the track when she ran the third-fastest 5,000m in history to confirm her injury worries are over.

Radcliffe was running her first race since undergoing a hernia operation in March and the golden girl did not disappoint as she smashed the Commonwealth record with a personal best time of 14min. 29.11secs.

Despite her performance, Radcliffe was disappointed she failed to break the world record.

She said: "My aim was to go out and run hard, ask myself some questions and get some answers.

"I am annoyed that I slowed in the second part of the race because I was on target for the world record up to 3km. This tells me I am in good shape and to run a personal best was all I could have asked for."