BLACKBURN Harrier Sophie Hitchon seems to thrive when the pressure is on, but even she admitted that she left it pretty late before securing a spot in the hammer final at the European Championships.

Hitchon is one of a select few British athletes who came to Helsinki with her place at London 2012 already secured.

But in yesterday’s qualifying a foul throw and an underwhelming 61.65m in her first two efforts left her in real danger of missing out on a place in tomorrow’s final.

But the 20-year-old from Burnley, who won the 2010 World Junior Champion-ship on her final throw, produced a third attempt of 67.08m, good enough for 11th overall and a place in Sunday’s showpiece.

The world record holder Betty Heidler from Germany was one of the big names to miss out in an extremely tight qualification and Hitchon insists there is still more to come from her.

“Qualifying was little bit closer than I would have liked,” she said.

“But it’s tough, if the world record holder is going out you know that the competition and the standard is pretty high.

“But I've always been good under pressure, I just seem to be able to pull it out the bag when I need to.

“My third throw clipped the cage on its way out though and at that stage I thought I had lost it and was going home.

“But it made it, I’ve got through to the final so I’m delighted and I’ll be looking for more in Sunday’s final.”

Hitchon’s place in London this summer is already secured by virtue of the fact that she won last weekend’s Olympic trials in Birmingham.

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