Kluft reigns supreme

"It was probably the biggest thing in my athletics career because it was in my country, near my family and my home", a tearful Kluft said after collecting her medal.

"The emotion just poured out of me," explained the now double-European, Olympic and World Champion.

Kluft barely had to break sweat in the final 800m event after a superb javelin throw of over 46m gave her an unasailable lead, winning with a championship record of 6740 points.

There will be an element of hollowness to the win though, after main challenger Eunice Barber withdrew from the event and eventually the Championships due to injury.

"It is sad for the competition and the crowd and it is sad for her but it does not affect me as a competitor," added Kluft.

Karin Ruckstuhl of the Netherlands took an impressive silver after running herself into the ground and setting a PB in both the 800m (2:11.97) and overall event (6423), just three points ahead of Germany's Lilli Schwarzkopf who could only beat her by 0.12s at the line.

Great Britain's Kelly Sotherton once again shot herself in the foot with a dreadful throw, slipping from second to seventh after barely passing 30m in her achilles heel event. A spirited 800m in which she came third after leading to the finish could not push the Commonwealth Games champion up any higher.

Kluft is the first of the Swedish "fab four" to win gold, Steffan Holm and Kasja Bergqvist (both High Jump), and Christian Olsson (triple Jump) widely expected to challenge for the championships.

"Now I have my own 100 metre European gold medal," said Portugal's Francis Obikwelu after his gold-medal run. He actually came second in the previous Euros at Munich although was retrospectively awarded gold after Dwayne Chambers' admission to steroid use at that time.

"This title means a lot to me. I was number one in Europe all the year and now I also have the gold medal. After the silver in Munich, I wanted this gold in Gothenburg badly.

"In my head, it is still the silver medal that I won in Munich."

Andrey Yepishin set a Russian national record (10.10) for silver, Matic Osovnikar (SLO) taking Bronze. Ronald Pognon (FRA), Mark Lewis-Francis and Dwayne Chambers (both GBR) were run out of the medals.

Obikwelu was comfortably the best performer throughout the heats although indoor specialist Yepishin had raised the temperature with a 10.17s run in the semi-finals.

Nigerian-born Obikwelu overcame an indifferent start to power home well ahead of the rest of the field, Osovnikar pipping Pognon to bronze. The two Brits - who on past performances should have been favourites for at least a medal - appeared to lack power although were hampered by outside lane draws.

Obikwelu could become the first man to win the sprint double at the Euros since 1978 as he lines up for the 200m later this week.

Former World Junior Champion Andrew Howe won the Long Jump with a second-round jump of 8.20 in swirly wind on Tuesday, becoming the first Italian ever to win gold in the event.

The former World Junior champion only fouled once and went past 8m at will in a competition he had sewn-up from the first jump.

US-born Howe was not entirely satisfied with his perfomance however, despite the tough conditions:

"It's great to win the gold but I have to admit I wanted to jump further today and break my personal best," said the 21-year-old.

Silver and Britain's first medal went to the impressive young Greg Rutherford with his final-round jump of 8.13, having trailed to former champion Alexej Lukaschewitsch (Ukraine) for most of the event. The Ukrainian took bronze 1cm behind the Brit.

Unheralded German Jan Fitschen sprinted to a shock 10,000m win by out-foxing Spaniards Juan Carlos de la Ossa and Jose Manuel Martinez in win a slow race won with a personal best time of 28:10.94.

Fitschen – who smashed his previous record by over eight seconds – exploited a race that was bunched until the 7km mark, the former champion Martinez and race favourite De la Ossa trying to break the field up but ultimately failing to come second and third.

Tatyana Lysenko of Russia blew away the women's Hammer field with a championship record of 76.67m but could not surpass the magic 77m mark – compatriot Gulfiya Kahafeyeva took silver with a throw of 74.50, Kamila Skomilowska coming third with 72.58.

Kasja Bergqvist, Blanka Vlasic, Ruth Beitia, Emma Green and Yelena Slesarenko all qualify for what promises to be a top-class High Jump final... Last season's European number one and World number two Tim Benjamin struggles to qualify for 400m final but makes it in fourth place - just... Olympic champion Fani Halkia wins her semi-final but is out-done by Yevgeniya Isakova (RUS) who runs 54.17 in the women's 400m hurdles...

Euro 2006 schedule and results