On a day when Britain took five golds to top the medals table from France, Mekhissi- Benabbad won his second ...no make that first.. title of the 2014 European Athletics champs yesterday as he clearly drew on the emotional anguish of being stripped of the steeplechase title he had won earlier in the week; to provide the "wow" moment in the men's 1500m final.
Taking the lead at the bell in an extremely 'messy' race where four runners fell, he injected a 12.3 seconds hundred metres to forge well clear of the field. The chasing pack tried to close him down but to no avail as once again he had time to gesticulate to the crowd (but kept his vest on this time!), taking gold in a modest 3:45.60 time after a 52 secs last lap. Behind him, defending champion Ingebrigtsen took silver and a final flourish from Brit Chris O'Hare clinched bronze.
There was to be no fairy tale ending for defending champion Viktor Rothlin in his final competitive marathon, as he finished a respectable 5th after an eventful race. The Pole Chabowski spectacularly got the pace wrong, as after leading for much of the event and by over one minute at one stage, he was caught at the 35km point and ultimately dropped out at the start of the final hill, to leave Meucci of Italy with a clear run for gold, with Shegumo of Poland coming through for silver and Russia's Reunkov coming through late on to pip Guerra for bronze.
Mo Farah became the most successful Euro champs athlete of all time to claim a 5th title, as he convincingly won the 5000m with a 52 seconds last lap to relegate Ibrahimov into silver, with Andy Vernon coming through for bronze to complement his silver earlier in the week in the 10000m. It has been a frustrating season for the double Olympic champion, having missed the Commonwealths due to illness limiting his preparation, but a double at these champs should provide confidence ahead of his world title defences next season.
Britain took three of the four relay titles on offer, and were in the photo finish for the other. Both 4 x 100m races went their way, as first the men missed the British record by two tenths of a second in defeating Germany and then the women took the National record that had stood since Moscow 1980 when running 42.24 secs in holding off the French. Their men's 4 x 400m team had to withstand a rejuvenated Russian team before individual winner Martyn Rooney ran a 43.9 last leg to edge clear. Their only 'disappointment' was in the women's 4 x 400m where they had to settle for bronze, with France taking a somewhat surprising gold ahead of Ukraine thanks to an inspired final leg by Guei.
Olympic and Commonwealth champion Greg Rutherford provided further joy for Britain when winning the men's long jump. A fourth round jump of 8.29m added two cm to his second round effort and proved sufficient to beat Greek Tsatoumas, who took silver, just a cm ahead of Gomis of France.
Finland claimed their only medals of the championships in the men's javelin, Ruuskanen taking gold with an impressive European leading throw of 88.01m into a strong headwind and Pitkamaki bronze. Defending champion Vesely moved into silver with a fine fifth round throw.
The women's steeplechase provided a popular winner in the shape of Moldner-Schmidt of Germany who only four years ago was fighting cancer. She took advantage of a bad landing by Sweden’s Fougberg off the final barrier to take the gold, with Martin from Spain coming through for third.
Christina Schwanitz took the women's shot title as expected with a throw of 19.90m. Indeed, such was her dominance, that her series included three further throws beyond the second place’s best put. Kolodko clinched silver with her final throw, as despite a Hungarian National record Marton had to settle for bronze.
In a high class women's high jump final, Beitea of Spain jumped 2-01m to set a World lead, becoming the first woman to successfully defend the Euro high jump title in the process. Three women cleared 1.99m behind her, but on countback it was Kuchina who took silver from Simic, with Kasprzycka unfortunately missing out on a medal.
The championships ended with Britain heading the medals’ table with 12 golds and 23 medals in total, their best ever haul at an European Championships. France matched their overall medal count to have a successful six days themselves but with three fewer golds.
