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BLACKSBURG – Virginia Tech track athlete Neil Gourley qualified for the finals in the 1,500-meter run at the European Athletics U23 Championships being held in Tallinn, Estonia, this weekend.

Gourley competed in a preliminary heat on Thursday and finished third with a time of 3 minutes, 45.58 seconds. The junior from Glasgow, Scotland, was just eight-hundredths of a second behind heat winner Marius Probst of Germany.

The top four in each of the two heats qualified for the finals, along with the top four times after that. Gourley’s time was ninth-fastest overall among the 12 qualifiers in the finals.

Gourley earned All-America honors during the indoor track and field season as part of the distance medley relay team that finished 11^th at the 2015 Division I Indoor Track and Field Championships held in Fayetteville, Arkansas, in mid-March. He earned first-team All-ACC honors after posting a third-place finish in the mile at the league’s indoor championship meet held at Rector Field House in February.

Gourley also earned first-team All-ACC honors during the outdoor season by finishing in second place in the 1,500 with a time of 3:47.91. He was only six-hundredths of a second behind the winner, Syracuse’s Justyn Knight.

The finals in the 1,500 at the European Athletics U23 Championships will be held Saturday.

For updates on Virginia Tech cross country, follow the Hokies on Twitter Follow @VT_Track