Jacobs 'over the moon' with title

MUNICH • Italy's Olympic champion Lamont Marcell Jacobs ended a troubled season on a high when he won the European 100m title on Tuesday, while local favourite Gina Luckenkemper clinched a brilliant women's race by five thousandths of a second in Munich.

Jacobs pulled out of last month's world championships before the semi-finals after a flare-up of the thigh injury that has dogged him all season. But he was in command throughout Tuesday's European Athletics Championships final as he came home in 9.95 seconds.

Defending champion Zharnel Hughes took silver in 9.99 ahead of fellow Briton Jeremiah Azu (10.13).

"This was a difficult season with problems, with injury but my leg is not good," said Jacobs.

"I am not happy about how the race went technically, there were some problems, but I am over the moon with the gold medal.

"After Olympic gold, now I got the European gold. Got to get the world championship gold now. We also look forward to the relay."

It was anything but clear cut in the women's race as Swiss Mujinga Kambundji looked to have it won until Luckenkemper and Briton Daryll Nieta caught her in a blanket finish. The German, silver medallist four years ago, and Kambundji were both timed at 10.99sec but Luckenkemper edged it by five thousandths of a second.

Nieta took bronze in 11.00. Fellow Briton and defending champion Dina Asher-Smith pulled up with cramp.

Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen retained his 5,000m title in typical style, hitting the front with three laps to go, winding up the pace and then outlasting his only remaining challenger, Spain's Mohamed Katir, over the last 200m.

Germany's former world champion Niklas Kaul had the impressive 50,000 crowd roaring as he produced a huge personal best of 4min 10.04sec to win the final 1,500 metres in the decathlon with a total of 8,545 points. He overhauled Swiss Simon Ehammer, who had a big lead after nine events but had to settle for silver.

World-record holder and world champion Kevin Mayer of France dropped out on Monday after picking up a thigh injury in the 100m.

Greece's Olympic long jump champion Miltiadis Tentoglou retained his European title by a huge margin with a championship-record leap of 8.52 metres but there was controversy behind him.

Briton Jacob Fincham-Dukes initially took silver courtesy of his opening jump of 8.06m but the France team objected after the event had finished, claiming that it had been a foul.

Despite no foul being indicated by the technology, the objection was upheld and the jump ruled out, demoting Fincham-Dukes to fifth and promoting Sweden's Thobias Montler to second and Frenchman Jules Pommery to third - both with 8.06m jumps. The British team are likely to launch a counter-appeal.

Meanwhile, Germany is considering bidding for the Olympics, a top official suggested, building on the success of an international event in Munich featuring nine sports, including athletics, and using many of the venues built for the 1972 summer Games.

The Bavarian capital is hosting the Aug 11-21 European Championships in front of large crowds, prompting German Olympic Committee president Thomas Weikert to tell ARD television: "I think you can organise Olympic Games without everything being on a massive scale.

"Here is a very good event with nine sports and you can see that you can build on that."

REUTERS