Lemiatre powers to men’s 200 gold to ensure Euro Championships sprint double

Lemaitre powers to 200 title & Euro sprint double

BARCELONA, Spain — Christophe Lemaitre overcame another poor start to win the men’s 200 meters on Friday and secure a sprint double at the European Championships.

The Frenchman was running fifth coming out of the bend at Barcelona’s Olympic stadium before turning on his reserves to power to the front of the field and win by .01 seconds in a tight finish.

Lemaitre’s time of 20.37 seconds gave him his second gold after Wednesday’s 100 dash victory.

“I had a lack of confidence in the middle of the race (and) I tried to do my best to pick up well during the last meters,” Lemaitre said. “This is such an important day for French athletics.”

Christian Malcolm of Britain took silver with a season-best run of 20.38 while Martial Mbanjock won another bronze after his third in the 100. The Frenchman’s time was 20.42 seconds.

“I didn’t see Lemaitre, I didn’t even hear him come,” Malcolm said. “I really thought I got it.”

Lemaitre has a chance to win a third medal on Sunday in the 400-meter relay.

Russia rejoined France atop the gold medal count moments later as Tatyana Firova led a Russian sweep in the women’s 400 meters.

Firova recorded her first major triumph in a European-leading time of 49.89 seconds.

Kseniya Ustalova was second in 49.92 ahead of Antonina Krivoshapka.

Both France and Russia have four golds.

Andy Turner of Britain kept France from another gold as he won the men’s 110-meter hurdles in 13.28 seconds. Garfield Darien won silver in 13.34, while Daniel Kiss of Hungary took bronze with a time of 13.39.

Petr Svoboda of the Czech Republic was in the lead until the final 20 meters, but the favorite faded badly to eventually finish sixth.

France won 50-kilometer walk gold earlier Friday after Yohann Diniz successfully defended his title on the streets of the Catalan capital.

Diniz won the men’s event in 3 hours, 40 minutes, 37 seconds after leading from the start while surviving a nasty fall close to the end.

“I knew I was going to win the race from the very beginning,” Diniz said. “Although I tripped, it was no problem.”

Gregorz Sudol of Poland took silver with a personal-best 3:42:24 while Sergey Bakulin of Russia won bronze.

Olympic champion Alex Schwazer — who won silver in the 20K walk on Tuesday — pulled out near the close with a muscle problem in his right leg. World silver medalist Trond Nymark and two-time world champion Sergey Kirdyapkin also failed to finish.