Teddy Tamgho broke his own indoor triple jump world record by leaping 17.92m on the last day of the European indoor championships, while Francis Obikwelu upset the favorites to win the 60m race on Sunday.
Russia topped the medal standings ahead of France with 15 medals overall, including 6 golds.
The 21-year-old Tamgho set his previous mark of 17.91m at the French indoor championships last month. Tamgho, who is coached by former long jump Olympic champion Ivan Pedroso of Cuba, broke the record on his second attempt and equaled it with his fourth jump.
Photo: Reuters
“I had to stay focused because the other guys were jumping far,” Tamgho said after celebrating with Pedroso. “Today I reached 17.92m twice, now I want to go further.”
Fabrizio Donato set a new Italian record of 17.73m to take silver ahead of Marian Oprea of Romania with 17.62m.
Tamgho first broke the record to win the world indoor title last year in Doha with a leap of 17.90m. He also competed in the long jump this weekend in Paris, ending fifth with a jump of 7.94m.
Obikwelu narrowly beat title holder Dwain Chambers in the 60m after resisting a late surge from his British rival.
Obikwelu won in 6.53 seconds, while Chambers, who was stripped of his European 100m gold medal from 2002 for doping, finished in 6.54 seconds.
Local favorite and European 100m champion Christophe Lemaitre of France was third with 6.58 seconds after a poor start, the weakest point of his technique.
Olesya Povh ran a European best time of 7.13 seconds to lead a Ukrainian 1-2 in the women’s 60m ahead of Mariya Ryemyen, who clocked a personal best of 7.15 seconds.
Ezinne Okparaebo of Norway took bronze with 7.20 seconds.
Andrei Krauchanka of Belarus overcame an ankle injury to win the heptathlon title with a total of 6,282 points.
Krauchanka was trailing three-time champion Roman Sebrle of the Czech Republic by 31 points after the first day, but claimed the gold medal with strong performances in pole vault, 60m hurdles and 1,000m.
Frenchman Nadir El Fassi took silver with 6,237 points ahead of Sebrle, who finished third with 6,178.
Veteran middle distance runner Helen Clitheroe gave Britain its second gold medal, clocking 8 minutes 56.66 seconds to narrowly win the 3,000m ahead of Russian Olesya Syreva and Lidia Chojecka of Poland.
The 37-year-old Clitheroe, who spent two months training in altitude in Kenya earlier this year, turned into the final straight with a comfortable lead, but then had to resist a late charge from Syreva to clinch victory at the line by only three hundredths of a second.
It was Clitheroe’s first major medal since her Commonwealth 1,500m bronze in 2002.
“All the way through I just tried to keep [my] concentration,” Clitheroe said. “It was only when I crossed the line that I thought ‘Oh my gosh, I’ve won.’”
Antonietta Di Martino capitalized on the absence of world and European champion Blanka Vlasic of Croatia to claim the high jump title with a 2.01m jump.
Russian Darya Klishina won the long jump ahead of Portuguese Naide Gomes and Yuliya Pidluzhnaya after leaping 6.80m.
Anna Rogowska of Poland cleared 4.85m to win the pole vault.
Adam Kszczot of Poland clocked 1 minute, 47.87 seconds to lead Poland 1-2 in the men’s 800m. Marcin Lewandowski took silver with 1 minute, 48.23 seconds and Spain’s Kevin Lopez was third, with 1 minute, 48.35 seconds. Yevgeniya Zinurova of Russia claimed the women’s title with 2 minutes, 00.19 seconds.
In the men’s 1,500m, Manuel Olmedo ran a season’s best of 3 minutes, 41.03 seconds to take the gold.
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