A BOLD tactical decision last night earned Britain’s Martyn Bernard a bronze medal in the high jump at the European Championships in Barcelona.

Despite the final starting in heavy rain, Bernard passed the opening height of 2.19 metres and almost paid the price with two failures before clearing 2.23m.

After a first-time failure at 2.26m, the 25-year-old from Wakefield then gambled again by passing at that height and moving up to 2.29m, which he cleared for a season’s best at the first attempt.

That put the 2006 Commonwealth silver medallist in the gold medal position, a position he held until Russian duo Ivan Ukhov and Aleksander Shustov cleared 2.31m at their second and third attempts respectively.

Bernard was unable to follow suit as Shustov took gold by clearing 2.33m, but said: ‘‘I love being at the championships.

‘‘Last year I missed the World Championships in Berlin because I was injured and had an ankle operation.

This year I wasn’t expecting to get here with my ankle, it was looking like a pin cushion at one point with all the acupuncture, so to come here and do okay is brilliant.”

Before the competition began, ‘Singing in the Rain’ was played over the public address system and Bernard had done his best Gene Kelly impression with black umbrella in hand to entertain the spectators trying to take shelter in the Olympic Stadium.

‘‘They were playing it, I had an umbrella, what else was I supposed to do?’’ he joked.