Brooks Beasts' Marta Pen Freitas seventh in Euro Team Champs D1 1500m...

On the final day of competition at the European Athletics Team Championships in Silesia, Poland, Marta Pen Freitas (Paul Merca photo) of Seattle's Brooks Beasts, representing her native Portugal, finished seventh in a tactical women's 1500 meter run Sunday afternoon.

After going through the first 800 in 2:26, Pen Freitas began navigating her way through the field, trying to find running room as the pack passed the kilometer mark.

The pack was still tightly bunched until 200 meters to go, when a group of five, led by eventual winner Esther Guerrero of Spain made a break. Pen Freitas could not find room to run until the pack exited the final turn, but by then it was too late.

Pen Freitas finished in a time of 4:13.50, as Guerrero won in 4:11.77.

The European Team Championships format has one athlete from each of the 16 countries in their division competing in each event, with 16 points given to first place, all the way down to 1 for 16th place.

Her Portuguese team finished the competition in eighth place, with 315 points over 37 events. Italy won the team title with 426.5 points, followed by host Poland's 402.5, and Germany's 387.5 points.

Belgium (250), Türkiye (245), and Norway (223) are relegated to the second division in the meet's next edition in two years as the last three teams in Division 1, replaced by the top three teams in the Division 2 championships, which ended Thursday--Hungary, Ukraine, and Lithuania.

Complete results of the European Athletics Team Championships are available here.

NOTE: European Athletics contributed to this report.

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