Christophe Lemaitre surged through the field to win the men's 100-meter final at the European Championships on Wednesday, the Frenchman's first triumph in a major competition. The 20-year-old Lemaitre was slow out of the blocks but recovered to flash over the finish line in 10.11 seconds at Barcelona's Olympic stadium. He entered the event having set the fastest time by a European this season earlier this month. The next four sprinters crossed the line in 10.18 in a finish so close it came down to thousandths of a second to decide the order. Mark-Lewis Francis of Britain took the silver and Martial Mbandjock of France claimed bronze ahead of defending champion Francis Obikwelu of Portugal and Dwain Chambers of Britain. Olympic silver medalist Elvan Abeylegesse of Turkey comfortably won the women's 10,000 meters in 31:10.23. Defending champ Inga Abitova's late surge brought silver for Russia. Jessica Augusto of Portugal held on for bronze. Russia leads the standings with seven medals, including two gold, after winning five Wednesday. Britain, Portugal and Italy all have three medals each. Ineta Radevica beat Naide Gomes of Portugal in a tiebreaker to win the women's long jump. They both leaped 6.92 meters but the Latvian won her first major gold because of a longer second jump. Olga Kucherenko jumped 6.84 to take bronze. Former Olympic heptathlon champion Carolina Kluft finished 11th of 12 competitors with a best leap of 6.33. A final throw of 64.67 meters by Sandra Perkovic of Croatia claimed victory in the women's discus. Nicoleta Grasu of Romania won the silver ahead of Poland's Joanna Wisniewska. In the men's hammer throw, Ibor Charfreitag of Slovakia hurled 80.02 meters to win gold. Nicola Vizzoni of Italy was second, with Krisztian Pars of Hungary third. Olympic champion Olga Kaniskina led a top-three sweep for Russia in the women's 20-kilometer walk across the streets of the Catalan capital in 1 hour, 27 minutes, 44 seconds. Anisya Kirdyapkina took silver ahead of Vera Sokolova.
