Obikwelu is sprint king, Kluft heptathlon queen

By John Bagratuni Aug 8, 2006, 19:28 GMT

Portuguese Francis Obikwelu celebrates with the Portuguese national flag after winning the men\'s 100m final at the European Athletics Championships 2006 in Gothenburg, Tuesday 08 August 2006. Obikwelu won in a time of 9,99 seconds. EPA/SRDJAN SUKI

Gothenburg, Sweden - Top favourite Francis Obikwelu of Portugal won the European championship 100 metres on the track Tuesday after awarded the 2002 crown as well in June.

Carolina Kluft brought the house down with the first 2006 title for the host nation Sweden in the heptathlon and Italy's Andrew Howe also lived up to his top billing in the long jump.

The Olympic silver medallist Obikwelu, 27, overcame a poor start to win in a championship record 9.99 seconds, the first man to dip below 10 seconds at the continental event.

Russian Andrey Yepishin came second in a personal best 10.10 and Matic Osovnikar of Slovenia was third in 10.14 seconds.

'This title means a lot to me. I was number 1 in Europe all year,' said Okikwelu.

Obikwelu, who was born in Nigeria but came to Portugal at a young age in 1994, originally finished second in the 2002 final, but was awarded the title two months after Briton Dwain Chambers was disqualified for a doping offence.

'Now I have my European 100m gold medal. In my head it is still the silver medal I won in Munich (2002). I don't know whether I will accept the gold medal, maybe I will send it back to the EAA when I get it,' said Obikwelu.

Chambers returned to competition in June, but managed no better than seventh Tuesday with 10.24 seconds. With Mark Lewis-Francis finishing fifth in 10.16 seconds it marked the first time since 1982 that no British runner made the Euro 100m podium.

Kluft, 23, added a second Euro-title to her two world titles from 2003 and 2005 and Olympic gold from 2004 in a competition she ruled ever since the 1999 world champion Eunice Barber had to retire Monday in leading position after two events.

The Swedish icon stayed below her target of attacking the European record 7,007 from Russian Larisa Nikitina, but wrapped up the win with 6,740 points after the Ullevi crowd carried her through the final 800m run with 'Caro, Caro' chants and a standing ovation.

Karin Ruckstuhl came second for the Netherlands with 6,423 points and Lilli Schwarzkopf of Germany third with 6,420 points.

The season-leader Howe collected his first major title and the first long jump continental crown for Italy with 8.20 metres in difficult wet and windy conditions following an afternoon thunderstorm.

United States-born Howe won ahead of Britain's Greg Rutherford, who had 8.13m. Ukraine's Oleksiy Lukashevych was third with 8.12m.

The talented Howe, 21, who is also a top sprinter, has a bright future and has been named by four-time long jump Olympic champion Carl Lewis as capable of breaking the magic 9-metres barrier. Howe's current best is 8.41m from earlier this year.

'It is great that I won the gold medal here but I have to admit I wanted to jump further today and break my personal best. I guess I tried a little too hard and put too much pressure on myself,' said Howe.

Earlier Tuesday, Francisco Fernandez of Spain walked away from all rivals early and crossed the line in 1:19:09 hours for back-to-back titles in the 20km walk. Valeriy Borchin took second place for Russia in a personal best 1:20:00 and Joao Vieira came third in a Portuguese record 1:20.09 hours.

The other finals Tuesday were the men's 10,000m and the women's hammer throw.