Barcelona: Britain's Mo Farah broke Spanish hearts on Tuesday as he sped away from home favourite Ayad Lamdassem on the final lap for a comprehensive victory in the men's 10,000 metres final at the European championships.
On a balmy evening at Barcelona's Olympic Stadium, Chris Thompson made it a British one-two as he held off Italian Daniele Meucci, although they were both given the same time.
Other winners
Britain was not the only nation to enjoy a one-two on the opening day of the championships.
Belarus took the top two places in the women's shot put final through Nadezhda Ostapchuk and Natallia Mikhnevich.
Russia had the honour of taking the first gold thanks to teenager Stanislav Yemelyanov's victory in the men's 20km walk in his first season competing as a senior. Yemelyanov, 19, finished in a time of one hour, 20 minutes and 10 seconds with Italy's 50-km walk Olympic champion Alex Schwazer 28 seconds behind. Portugal's Joao Vieira finished third to repeat his bronze medal of four years ago.
Cheered on by a sparse but noisy crowd, waving red and yellow Spanish flags, Moroccan-born Lamdassem hit the front in the 10,000 metres with three laps to go but could not sustain the tempo and eventually finished a disconsolate fourth.
Somali-born Farah, silver medallist in the 5,000 at the 2006 Europeans, kicked hard just after the bell as he and Lamdassem were lapping stragglers and the Spaniard had no answer to the Briton's sudden injection of pace.
The goatee-bearded 27-year-old pulled clear and crossed the line with his arms outstretched with joy to win in 28 minutes, 24.99 seconds.
"I can't quite believe it. It's not been easy," said Farah who was given a Union Jack with the words "fly mo" on it after he crossed the line.
"Coming second four years ago I had that in my head and each year since I've been thinking about it. So to get the gold means so much to me.
"Now I look forward to the 5,000. I need to recover fast," added Farah, who is likely to come up against Spain's European champion Jesus España.
At the other end of the distance scale, Europe's two fastest athletes remained on track for a head-to-head for yesterday's 100 metres final after safely coming through their heats.
Results
Men's
10,000 metres final: 1. Mo Farah (GBR) 28:24.99 2. Chris Thompson (GBR) 28:27.33 3. Daniele Meucci (ITA) 28:27.33 4. Ayad Lamdassem (ESP) 28:34.89 5. Carles Castillejo (ESP) 28:49.69 6. Christian Belz (SUI) 28:54.01 7. Andrea Lalli (ITA) 29:05.20 8. Youssef El Kalay (POR) 29:07.61 9. Christian Glatting (GER) 29:09.84 10. Abdellatif Meftah (FRA) 29:14.74 11. Marcin Chabowski (POL) 29:15.65 12. Jan Fitschen (GER) 29:16.59 13. Jussi Utriainen (FIN) 29:16.87 14. Sondre Nordstad Moen (NOR) 29:19.63 15. Filmon Ghirmai (GER) 29:28.31 16. Stsiapan Rahautsou (BLR) 29:40.19 17. Matti Rdsdnen (FIN) 29:45.95 18. Pavel Shapovalov (RUS) 29:50.02 19. Josi Rocha (POR) 29:50.4120. Moges Tesseme (ISR) 29:50.78 21. Marius Ionescu (ROU) 30:21.76 22. Kemal Koyuncu (TUR) 30:28.83
20-km walk final: 1. Stanislav Emelyanov (RUS) 1:20:10 2. Alex Schwazer (ITA) 1:20:38 3. Joao Vieira (POR) 1:20:49 4. Robert Heffernam (IRL) 1:21:00 5. Giorgio Rubino (ITA) 1:22:12 6. Andrey Krivov (RUS) 1:22:20 7. Matej Toth (SVK) 1:22:20 8. Jakub Jelonek (POL) 1:22:24 9. Juan Manuel Molina (ESP) 1:22:35 10. Rafal Augustyn (POL) 1:22:40 11. Andriy Kovenko (UKR) 1:22:43 12. Ruslan Dmytrenko (UKR) 1:22:45 13. Hervi Davaux (FRA) 1:24:12 14. Miguel Angel Lopez (ESP) 1:24:28 15. Silviu Casandra (ROM) 1:24:51 16. Maik Berger (GER) 1:25:01 17. Anton Kuchmin (SVK) 1:25:12 18. Jose Ignacio Diaz (ESP) 1:25:36 19. Dawid Tomala (POL) 1:25:50 20. Jamie Costin (IRL) 1:26:05 21. Sergio Vieira (POR) 1:27:07 22. Ivan Losyev (UKR) 1:27:12 23. Arnis Rumbenieks (LAT) 1:30:50 Disqualified: Ato Ibanez (SWE), Dzianis Simanovich (BLR) Retired: Ivano Brugnetti (ITA), Mate Helebrandt (HUN).
100 metres (first round): Heat 1: 1. Dwain Chambers (GBR) 10.21 Q 2. Ronald Pognon (FRA) 10.46 Q 3. Robert Kubaczyk (POL) 10.51 Q 4. Ronalds Arajs (LAT) 10.52 Q. Heat 2: 1. Martial Mbandjock (FRA) 10.26 Q 2. Emanuele Di Gregorio (ITA) 10.31 Q 3. Matic Osovnikar (SLO) 10.36 Q 4. Alexander Kosenkow (GER) 10.44 Q 5. Dmitriy Glushchenko (ISR) 10.44 Q 6. Angel David Rodriguez (ESP) 10.45 Q Heat 3: 1. Francis Obikwelu (POR) 10.27 Q 2. Tobias Unger (GER) 10.35 Q 3. Simone Collio (ITA) 10.43 Q 4. Hannu Hamalainen (FIN) 10.49 Q 5. Pawel Stempel (POL) 10.58 Q Heat 4: 1. Jaysuma Saidy Ndure (NOR) 10.31 Q 2. Ryan Moseley (AUT) 10.38 Q 3. James Dasaolu (GBR) 10.40 Q 4. Christian Blum (GER) 10.57 Q. Heat 5: 1. Christophe Lemaitre (FRA) 10.19 Q 2. Mark Lewis-Francis (GBR) 10.23 Q 3. Fabio Cerutti (ITA) 10.38 Q 4. Jason Smyth (EIR) 10.43 Q 5. Dariusz Kuc (POL) 10.53 Q.
Hammer — Qualifiers for the final: Group A: 1. Krisztian Pars (HUN) 76.48m2. Szymon Ziolkowski (POL) 75.75 3. Nicola Vizzoni (ITA) 75.04 4. Igor Vinichenko (RUS) 74.88 5. Olli-Pekka Karjalainen (FIN) 74.23. Group B: 1. Libor Charfreitag (SVK) 77.70m 2. Nicolas Figere (FRA) 75.85 3. Valeri Sviatokha (BLR) 74.66 4. Mattias Jons (SWE) 74.56 5. Kristsf Nemeth (HUN) 74.28 6. Wojciech Kondratowicz (POL) 74.22 7. Oleksiy Sokyrskyy (UKR) 74.16
Women's
400-metre hurdles - Qualifiers for semi-finals:
Heat 1: 1. Angela Morosanu (ROM) 55.11 2. Perri Shakes-Drayton (GBR) 55.35 3. Hanna Titimets (UKR) 55.58 4. Manuela Gentili (ITA) 56.14 Heat 2: 1. Zuzana Hejnova (CZE) 55.36 2. Yevgeniya Isakova (RUS) 55.64 3. Elodie Ouedraogo (BEL) 55.80 4. Anna Yaroshchuk (UKR) 55.88 Heat 3: 1. Vania Stambolova (BUL) 54.77 2. Eilidh Child (GBR) 55.82 3. Natalya Ivanova (RUS) 55.83 4. Zuzana Bergrova (CZE) 56.55 Heat 4: 1. Natalya Antyukh (RUS) 54.29 2. Fabienne Kohlmann (GER) 55.69 3. Ieva Zunda (LAT) 56.02 4. Marzena Koscielniak (POL) 56.52.
Long Jump - Qualifiers for the final: Group A: 1. Lyudmila Kolchanova (RUS) 6.87m 2. Naide Gomes (POR) 6.81 3. Anna Jagaciak (POL) 6.74 4. Viktoriya Rybalko (UKR) 6.72 5. Renata Medgyesova (SVK) 6.66 6. Ivana Spanovic (SRB) 6.63 7. Carolina Kluft (SWE) 6.62 Group B: 1. Ineta Radevica (LAT) 6.72m
2 Jana Veldakova (SVK) 6.69 3. Margrethe Renstrom (NOR) 6.68 4. Nastassia Mironchyk (BLR) 6.66 5. Olga Kucherenko (RUS) 6.65.
Discus - Qualifiers for the final: Groupe A: 1. Dragana Tomasevic (SRB) 59.24m 2. Zinaida Sendriute (LTU) 58.98 3. Anna Soderberg (SWE) 58.96 4. Joanna Wisniewska (POL) 58,93 5. Sabine Rumpf (GER) 58.41 6. Monique Jansen (NED) 57.75 7. Sandra Perkovic (CRO) 57.70 8. Natalya Sadova (RUS) 57.19 Group B: 1. Nicoleta Grasu (ROM) 62.10m 2. Nadine Muller (GER) 60.54 3. Wioletta Potepa (POL) 60.45 4. Svetlana Saykina (RUS) 56.32.
Shot final: 1. Nadzeya Ostapchuk (BLR) 20.48m 2. Natallia Mikhnevich (BLR) 19.53 3. Anna Adveyeva (RUS) 19.39 4. Yanina Pravalinskay-Karolchyk (BLR) 19.29 5. Olga Ivanova (RUS) 19.02 6. Petra Lammert (GER) 18.94 7. Nadine Kleinert (GER) 18.94 8. Denise Hinrichs (GER) 18.48 9. Helena Engman (SWE) 18.11 10. Mariam Kevkhishvili (GEO) 17.87 11. Anita Marton (HUN) 17.78 12. Austra Skujyte (LTU) 17.72 13. Chiara Rosa (ITA) 17.49 14. Melissa Boekelman (NED) 17.32.
