France's Ladji Doucoure took the gold medal in the men's 60 meters hurdles after a photo finish at the European Indoor Championships on Friday. Doucoure, who won the 110m world title in 2005, started slowly but recovered by the third hurdle and maintained his speed off the final hurdle to edge out defending champion Gregory Sedoc of the Netherlands. Doucoure won by photo finish after both crossed the line in 7.55 seconds. “My start was bad, I really need to work on that and then I also touched a hurdle, I thought I would fall,” Doucoure said. “This race was far from ideal, a model race, but I do not care.” Sedoc had looked the brighter throughout the season, but appeared unnerved by the big occasion. Czech Republic's Petr Svoboda won the bronze medal in 7.61. He failed to find his rhythm at the start and was unable to close in enough to challenge for either of the top two places. “I lost my rhythm at the third hurdle, it was panic,” Svoboda said. “I had to work very hard in the last few meters.” Eline Berings won gold in the women's hurdles after making the best start. The Belgian was quickest to the first hurdle and confidently maintained her form throughout the race, finishing comfortably ahead of the rest of the field in 7.92. “I am so excited,” Berings said. “I knew I was in very good shape and I ran my perfect race. My goal was to get through the rounds, saving energy for the final.” Lucie Skrobakova of the Czech Republic claimed the silver medal after recovering from a poor start to finish in a time of 7.95 and set a new national record. Ireland's Derval O'Rourke won the bronze medal in 7.97. Midway through the race she seemed ready to challenge for the gold medal, but faded in the latter part of the race. Petra Lammert took the gold in the women's shot in a German 1-2, with Denise Hinrichs taking the silver. Lammert led with her first put of 19.66 meters that neither she, nor the rest of the field was able to better. She failed to register another attempt until the final round. “I came here with an injured elbow and with a season's best of only 19 meters,” Lammert said. “I asked myself whether the elbow was stable enough, but then my first attempt went so far, 19.66 meters, and I was sure I had a safe gold medal.” Hinrichs took the silver medal with a personal best of 19.63, while Romania's Anca Heltne claimed bronze with 18.71. European athletics powerhouse Russia earned its first medal when Anna Bogdanova took the pentathlon gold with a score of 4,761 points. Having led from the first event Bogdanova went into the 800m, the final discipline of the event, in confident mood and jogged round to finish almost 100 points ahead of silver medalist Jolanda Keizer. “I felt really well, but there was no time to relax, even a bit, during the competition,” Bogdanova said. “One event followed the other quickly and it was very tiring. I prepared hard for this season very seriously, but I did not want to skip the indoor season.” Keizer finished with 4,644 points, missing out due to poor results in the long jump and 800m. France's Antoinette Nana Djimou took the bronze with 4,618 points having excelled in the long jump in which she finished with the best result.
