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BARCELONA: Defending European champion Yohann Diniz of France sprung an upset in the 50km walk with an impressive performance in the heat and humidity of Barcelona to retain his title.
Diniz took advantage as his main rivals dropped like flies to win the event in 3:40.37, the fastest time this year in Europe by a mighty nine minutes.
The Olympic champion Alex Schwazer, of Italy, came with the aim of a double gold in the walking events but after picking up silver in the 20km walk, he had to pull out towards the end of this race through injury.
The world champion Sergey Kirdyapkin, of Russia, and world silver medallist Trond Nymark, of Norway, also failed to finish.
Poland's Grzegorz Sudol took silver with a personal best and Russia's Sergey Bakulin won bronze.
The women's high jump is one of the top attractions due to the rich array of talent on display led by Croatia's Blanka Vlasic who will not be just looking to win gold but also break the European record of 2.09m set by Stefka Kostadinova.
In qualifying the major upset was that Anonietta Di Martino did not reach the final.
The Italian is one of four women who have cleared 2m this season, the others being Vlasic, Ariane Friedrich, of Germany, and Spain's Ruth Beitia.
Blanka has jumped highest but the only surprise is that she has only cleared 2.03m so far after several seasons of going close to the world record but there is still time for her to improve.
The Croat has never won a medal at the European championships and she has also struggled in the European indoors, finishing fifth last year in Torino, which was won by Friedrich, who is set to be her biggest rival.
There is no clear favourite for the women's 200m but all the likely candidates for medals progressed through to the semi-finals.
European Under-23 champion Aleksandra Fedoriva, of Russia, is the fastest on paper but she will face tough opposition from the Ukraine's Yelizaveta Bryzhina who beat Russian Yulia Chermoshanskaya, another contender, in Bergen recently.
Up-and-coming hurdles star Christina Vukicevic has focused fully on the European championships this year and she qualified in first place for the semi-finals of the 100m event with a season's best time of 12.83secs.
The 23-year-old Norwegian, who won gold at the European Under-23 Championships last year will face tough competition from Ireland's Derval O'Rourke and Turkey's Nevin Yanit, the other two favourites for gold.
- AFP/de
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