Russia won the European Team Championships for the second year in a row on Sunday and French runner Christophe Lemaitre won the 200m to complete the sprint double.
The 21-year-old Lemaitre was undeterred by the wet and windy conditions at Stockholm’s Olympic Stadium, outclassing the field to win in a season-best 20.28 seconds.
“It was a good race and a very good time, even though it is pretty cold,” Lemaitre said.
Photo: AFP
Lemaitre won the 100m in 9.95 seconds on Saturday to become the fastest European since Francis Obikwelu of Portugal ran in 9.86 seconds at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
As the weather worsened on Sunday, organizers made the -decision to hold the men’s pole vault indoors, adding a significant delay to the end of the competition.
Maksim Mazuryk of Ukraine eventually won the event with his best jump of the year, clearing the bar at 5.72m.
By then, Russia had long since opened up an unassailable lead by totaling 385 points across two days. Germany was second with 331.5, while Ukraine trailed in third with 304.
Tatyana Dektyareva added to Russia’s five wins on Saturday when she took the women’s 110m hurdles in a season-best 13.16 seconds, while Darya Klishina jumped 6.74m to win the long jump.
Russia also won the men’s and women’s 4x400m relays, the last track events of the competition.
Andy Turner ran the 110m hurdles in 13.42 seconds to win, with Britain finishing fourth overall, while teammate Charlene Thomas claimed the women’s 1,500m in 4 minutes, 6.85 seconds.
Sweden’s Emma Green provided a rare victory for the home crowd with a leap of 1.89m to win the women’s high jump. The Swedish team finished bottom of the table and was relegated to the second tier of European athletics, along with Portugal and Czech Republic.
The European Team Championships meet is the successor to the European Cup, with one athlete from each of Europe’s 12 top-ranked countries competing in each of the 20 events for men and women.
Germany won the inaugural 2009 competition in Leiria, Portugal. Russia won last year in Bergen, Norway.
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