Mo Farah and Jessica Ennis led Britain's golden night at the European Athletic Championships by claiming victories in the men's 5,000 meters and women's heptathlon Saturday. Farah made up for a 0.09-second defeat to Jesus Espana four years ago with a commanding performance that secured him the distance double alongside his 10,000 meters gold medal. Farah's time of 13 minutes, 31.18 seconds at Barcelona's Olympic Stadium was 1.92 seconds better than the Spaniard, who settled for silver ahead of Azerbaijan's Hayle Ibrahimov. Farah wept in joy over his achievement. “I had that in my mind,” Farah said of his contest with Espana in 2006 as they veered into the final bend. Ennis, meanwhile, set a new European record of 6,823 points to add a European title to her world heptathlon one. Ennis, holding an 18-point lead over Olympic champion Nataliya Dobrynska, finished in front of the Ukrainian in the closing 800 meters event to secure gold. Ennis said: “I was so glad to win, especially (...) the way that I won it, which was mainly to prove that I really am the world No. 1.” She passed Carolina Kluft's total of 6,740 from 2006 with a season-best run in the two-lap race. Britain's night didn't end there as David Greene and Rhys Williams led a 1-2 in the 400-meter hurdles. France's Myriam Soumaire denied Russia's women another gold medal by securing a 200 meters win in a European season's best time of 22.32 seconds. “I cannot believe what happened – the last meters was crazy,” said 100 bronze winner Soumaire. Moments after teammate and 100-meter silver medalist Veronique Mang was disqualified for a false start, Soumaire surged to the front of the field from the outside lane. Ukraine's Yelizaveta Bryzhina took silver as the top two passed Aleksandra Fedoriva just as the Russian seemed set for gold when she led coming out of the bend. Russian women had won five medals on Friday night. While Russia was held off the top of the podium Saturday, it still leads with eight golds and 21 overall. Britain has six golds as does France after Renaud Lavillenie won the pole vault with a leap of 5.85 meters. Andreas Thorkildsen of Norway won his second straight javelin gold to go with Olympic and world titles. The Norwegian coolly shrugged off an impressive challenge from Matthias De Zordo of Germany to win with a throw of 88.37 meters, better by 56 centimeters. “He already beat me once this year, so I couldn't let it happen twice,” Thorkildsen said. “But he really tried to. Luckily I was able to come back.” Thorkildsen celebrated by carrying championship mascot ‘Barni' over his shoulder during his victory lap. Poland also picked up its first gold thanks to Marcin Lewandowski's 800 win, and Turkey, too, earned its first victory as Nevin Yanit led from the gun to win the 100 hurdles in 12.63 seconds. “I cannot believe what happened,” said Yanit, who received a congratulatory call from Turkey Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan after the emotional win. Belarus' Andrei Mikhnevich edged Olympic champion Tomasz Majewski of Poland and defending champion Ralf Bartels of Germany for shot put gold. “After some difficult seasons I'm back where I want to be,” said former world champion Mikhnevich, whose second throw of 21.01 meters edged Majewski's by 1 centimeter. Ukraine won five medals Saturday, led by Olha Saladuha's 4.81-meter leap in the women's triple jump. Zivile Balciunaite of Lithuania won the women's marathon while 50-year-old Merlene Ottey made history as the oldest athlete to compete at the event when she ran in the 4x100 women's relay. France advanced to the men's 4x100 relay final Sunday despite Christophe Lemaitre, who won the 100 and 200 dashes, sitting out qualifying.
