TOM Lancashire will assess his options before deciding whether to run at the Commonwealth Games in October.

The 25-year-old Bolton middle distance star finished a disappointing 10th in the 1500m final at the European Championships on Friday night.

He made his bid for a medal when he hit the front with 500m to go but he could not find the strength to finish it off down the final straight and slipped back through the field.

It was the third major championships in the last three years for the Bromley Cross man, following the Olympic Games two years ago and the World Championships last year.

The next Olympics in London in two years is his big target, and the only major championships in between are this year’s Commonwealth Games and next year’s World Championships.

As one of the two fastest men on the British scene, his personal best is slightly faster than current number one Andy Baddeley and his season’s best slightly slower, qualification for the major championships is always within his capabilities.

But after going out in the heats at the Olympics and World Championships, and failing to get a hoped-for medal at the Europeans, he is determined to show the form at a major championships that he shows on the Diamond League circuit. But he is yet to decide whether he extends his season to October and takes on the world’s best Kenyans at the Commonwealth Games in two and a half months.

“I don’t know yet,” he said. “I’ll have to discuss it with my coach and decide what my goals are for next year and whether it fits in.

“It’s a possibility but it’s late in the year and we’ll have to see how it impacts on winter training and preparing for next year.

“I’ve got a couple more races planned and then we’ll see.”

Lancashire has no regrets about the way he ran the race on Friday night.

The Spanish contingent slowed the race right down, which did not suit Lancashire, and he took it on hard in the last 500m in a bid to break the field in a brave, do-or-die effort.

“The tactics were similar in the semi-final and worked well,” he said.

“Because how slow the race went in the final I had to take it on and try to put myself in a position for a medal.

“It didn’t matter if I finished 10th or fourth, I had to try to make it happen rather than let it happen, and I gave it my best.

“In the end I should have been able to keep going down the last straight, but I didn’t have the strength.

“I put that down partly to my lack of strength training during the winter.”