The men's 10,000 metres at the 1978 European Athletics Championships was held in Prague, then Czechoslovakia, at Stadion Evžena Rošického on 29 August 1978.
Around 7,000 metres, at which point the official split time was 19:20.6, the Soviet Union's Enn Sellik began to have trouble following the leading group, due to a stinging pain in his liver.
After 8,800 metres, Sellik and Norway's Knut Kvalheim also lost touch with the main group, and a moment later they were joined by the Netherlands' Gerard Tebroke, who could not keep up with Black's sudden and sharp surge of pace.
Around 9,300 metres, the exhausted Floroiu fell behind the main group, while Ortis and Antipov joined the three leading runners early on the back straight.
At the start of the final bend, Vainio accelerated past Ortis, and with under 130 metres left, he easily passed Foster.
Amazingly, the tired British runner soon gave up the struggle for the bronze medal, and he jogged across the finish line in the fourth place.
(See for example The Runner Magazine / Juoksija-lehti, Prague European Championships / EM-Praha (Helsinki, Finland, 1978); Wolfgang Wunsche, The Heroes of the Race Tracks / Kilpakenttien sankarit (translated into Finnish; Helsinki, 1984); the Finnish TV commentary on this race in the following two videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3DGEBCa1jrU; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-dKINSTK0So).