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German sprinter Verena Sailer produced the race of her life to win 100m gold at the European championships after a photo-finish with France's Veronique Mang on Thursday.

The event saw the surprise elimination of the fastest woman in Europe this season, Belarus's Alena Neumiarzhytskaya, in the first round of qualifying, and then Britain's Laura Turner, not far behind with a time of 11.11sec, was knocked out in the semi-finals.

It set the stage for Sailer, who won the German national championships and set a European medal as her goal for the season.

She flew to a personal best of 11.10sec while Mang, clocked at 11.11sec, gave her fastest ever performance as well. France were also celebrating with Myriam Soumare winning bronze.

"It is amazing to think that I am European champion. It was an incredible race and I am still coming to terms with it," said Sailer.

Mang was also delighted.

"I felt good during the run. When you are here in Barcelona at the European Championships you only want to give your best which I did. This has all been like a dream to me."

Mang's compatriot Christophe Lemaitre, who won the men's 100m title on Wednesday, reached the final of the 200m with the best time in the semi-finals of 20.39sec after an astonishing late burst.

"I knew that in the home straight I was going to hit top speed," said Lemaitre, who became the first white sprinter in history to break the 10-sec barrier for the 100m earlier this month.

There was a Russian double in the men's high jump with Aleksander Shustov beating Ivan Ukhov to gold.

"From the beginning it was not going well because of the rain but then I found the courage to jump higher," said Shustov.

Bronze went to Britain's Martyn Bernard, who only just qualified for the final on Tuesday with his final jump, but produced a season's best of 2.29m to finish third.

Britain's Phillip Idowu, the world champion, recorded a personal best with a leap of 17.81m to win gold in the triple jump.

Going into the competition France's Teddy Tamgho was the marginal favourite having jumped to 17.98m recently, but on the night he was only able to reach 17.45m, which gave him bronze.

The silver medal went to Romania's Marian Oprea, a two-time European medalist who has returned to form after knee surgery last year.

"My buildup to the championships was not great but I am very happy to have jumped so consistently. With the world championships and European championships now under my belt, I am just missing one title - the Olympics," said Idowu.

France's Roman Barras has won gold in the Decathlon with fifth place in the final event, the 1,500m, enough to give him first place with a total number of 8453 points.

In the absence of the world record holder Roman Sebrle through injury, Barras was one of the favourites to succeed the Czech as European champion having been in good form coming into the event.

Behind him Eelco Sintnicolaas, of Holland, and Andrei Krauchanka, of Belarus, took silver and bronze respectively.

Germany completed a double in the women's javelin as Linda Stahl and Christina Obergfoll won gold and silver, respectively. Barbora Spotakova, of the Czech Republic, took bronze.

AFP