Martyn Rooney lived to fight another day after making the European Championships 400 metres final as a fastest loser after running a poor race in Barcelona on Wednesday night.
Rooney, drawn in the toughest heat, never got his race together as Jonathan Borlee won the semi final in a Belgium record of 44.71 seconds with Leslie Djhone of France runner up in 44.87.
Rooney, who clocked 45.00, said: "I made mistakes. I slowed down at 200m for some stupid reason and kicked too early.
"I made silly mistakes, if I'd run the race properly I would have been comfortable but I didn't. You can't make those mistakes in the final or you will be punished."
Michael Bingham, running much better, went through after clocking a season's best of 44.88 behind Ireland's David Gillick, who beat him by 0.09sec but Conrad Williams was eliminated when sixth in his semi in 46.60.
Perri Shakes-Drayton and Eilidh Child went through to the 400m hurdles final while Andy Baddeley, Colin McCourt and Tom Lancashire all qualified easily for the 1500m final.
Shakes-Drayton, the European U23 champion posted a lifetime best of 54.73 when finishing third while Child, runner up on that occasion, went through as a fastest loser in 55.27.
Baddeley, who leads the Euro rankings, said: "The gold medal. It's not talking a good game, it's just what I am aiming for."
Last summer's World Championships 400m finalist Dai Greene won his heat in 50.11 while fellow Welshman Rhys Williams, the bronze medallist four years ago, also claimed his in the fastest time of the day of 49.35.
Nathan Woodward, who was third in his heat in 50.45 also went through.
Greene, happy to be favourite said: "It doesn't worry me really, I know if I execute the race correctly the gold is there for me to take, but I'm not taking anything for granted."
Laura Turner, after qualifying for the next 100m rounds, said: "It was nice and comfortable, it was all about just qualifying for the semi-finals, so job done. The real stuff starts tomorrow."
Michael Rimmer, after making the 800m semi finals after a solid performance and winning his heat in 1:49.99 and with Yuriy Borzakovskiy and Bram Som non-starters, said: "We've lost two of the big guys but it's still going to be tough.
"I have nothing to lose and I'll be giving it absolutely everything."
Hatti Dean qualified easily for the 3000m steeplechase final but Barbara Parker failed to progress when running her slowest time of the season while Kate Dennison got through to the pole vault final.