Dwain Chambers Sprints To 100m Victory

Dwain Chambers stormed to an impressive 100m victory at the European Team Championships yesterday.

With a 9.99 seconds time Chambers showed that he is still the man to beat as the European Championships in Barcelona draw ever closer.

But the British number one was not without a challenge as he faced twenty year old Frenchman Christophe Lemaitre who is making a name for himself so far this season.

Lemaitre has been the fastest European sprinter so far this season but it was the experienced head of Chambers that came through to take the full twelve points for the British team.

And it was a good day all round at the meeting Norway as Great Britain finished in second place at the end of the first day after five individual victories.

Martin Rooney showed why he is the number one European 400m runner so far this season as he clocked a 45.67 second win.

Rooney has already run under the magic 45 second this season but the blustery conditions were not great for quick times.

Leslie Djhone finished second while Vladomir Krasnov was in third, and these two are the sprinters that Rooney is likely to face if he wants to be European champion later this summer.

David Greene is another British athlete who is currently European number one as he went over the 400m hurdles.

He won the race in 49.53 seconds and told BBC Sport that he feels good and is looking forward to Barcelona: "I'm in good shape and looking forward to the trials but I don't want to peak until Barcelona - maybe I'll do a few relays before then."

Mo Farah but any issues he had over his speed behind him as he enjoyed another victory in the 5000m. Farah has been training for 10,000 and admitted before the race he was a little unsure about the quality of his speed.

But with 150 meters to go Farah pulled away and cruised to victory and he is hoping to go one better than the silver medal he got at the Europeans four years ago.

And a shock win came in the men’s 1500 meters as Colin McCourt sprinted home to take maximum points.

While there were no individual wins on the women’s side there were some very positive performances. Goldie Sayers has struggled with her form over the last twelve months but looked to be coming back to her best as she was second with a throw of 59.25 meters.

There was a second place for Eilidh Childs in the 400m hurdles while Barbara Parker came fourth in the 3000m steeplechase after sprinting down the home straight.

The final day was rounded off with the 4x100m relay, the women were disappointed by their fourth place but the men came home in second for what was a good day for team GB as we look forward to a championship later this year.

The likes of Philips Idowu and Jo Pavey are in action on the second day of the competition which gets underway this afternoon.

FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw