Richard Goodman ran a solid race to help Great Britain and Northern Ireland secure team gold medals in the European under-23 Cross Country Championships in Belgrade.

Goodman finished 21st in the 8km event in 24:41, behind race winner Pieter-Jan Hannes of Belgium (24:02) and first British finisher Luke Caldwell (24:13). The race was held over a fast, flat course consisting of one short lap of 500m followed by five laps of 1,500m.

Goodman said: "I wanted to avoid going off too fast, but still to keep in reasonable contact in the opening laps and then move up. Everyone was tightly bunched during the first two laps, and there was a lot of jostling and people were falling over.

"I didn’t have it in the legs to achieve everything I wanted, and my moving up the field never really happened. But it was definitely the fastest and most tightly-packed race I have ever run in, and I see it as a good start to my under-23 and senior career."

Goodman is now flying to Kenya for six weeks of altitude training, before returning to continue his studies at St Mary’s University College, Twickenham and to compete in the British Universities Cross Country Championship.