Great Britain's Lawrence Clarke finished fourth the Men's 110m Hurdles. Photo credit: Martin Rickett/PA Wire.

Aries Merritt claimed gold as the Brit had to suffer finishing just off the podium

Team GB’s Lawrence Clarke exceeded expectations as he finished just outside the medal positions in the men’s 110m hurdles final at the Olympic Stadium.

Westminster-born Clarke clocked a personal best of 13.31 seconds in his semi-final – and then burst through to claim fourth place with another magnificent run later in the evening.

“I went into the semi-final treating it as the final and ran a personal best and, if you’d said that was going to happen, I’d definitely have taken that,” admitted the 22-year-old.

“To win a medal at the Olympic Games is very hard and I never came here with that expectation. To come fourth – the best you can come outside the medals – I can’t believe it.”

Clarke, who won a bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games two years ago, only edged into Wednesday’s final – won by American Aries Merritt – as one of the fastest losers after finishing third in his semi-final.

With two more semi-finals still to be run, the British athlete had to endure an anxious wait before his place in the final was finally confirmed.

But Clarke made the most of his opportunity, battling hard and dipping on the line to edge out Ryan Brathwaite of Barbados and Cuba’s Orlando Ortega in a time of 13.39.