Olympic Champion Jacobs and Lueckenkemper Take European 100 Metres Golds
Marcell Jacobs ended a troubled season by winning the European 100-meter title on Tuesday. Gina Lueckenkemper won the women’s race by five thousandths of a second.
Jacobs withdrew from the global championships before the semi-finals last month due to a thigh ailment, but he won Tuesday’s final in 9.95 seconds.
Zharnel Hughes earned silver in 9.99, beating Jeremiah Azu (10.13).
In the women’s race, Swiss Mujinga Kambundji appeared to win until Lueckenkemper and Briton Daryll Nieta caught her.
Lueckenkemper, the 2012 silver medalist, beat Kambundji by thousandths.
Nieta, who had a slow start and failed to match her semi-final time, claimed bronze in 11.00 but afterwards said she cramped up and pondered retiring. Defending champion Dina Asher-Smith cramped midrace.
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Jakob Ingebrigtsen retained his 5,000m title in usual fashion, hitting the lead with three laps to go, ratcheting up the tempo, and outlasting Spain’s Mohamed Katir over the last 200m.
Niklas Kaul recorded a remarkable personal best of 4 minutes 10.04 seconds to win the last 1,500 metres in the decathlon and overtake Switzerland’s Simon Ehammer, who had a significant lead after nine events but finished 38 seconds behind the victor and had to settle for silver.
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Kevin Mayer of France withdrew after injuring his thigh in the opening 100-meter race.
Miltiadis Tentoglou retained his European long jump title with a record leap of 8.52 metres, although there was controversy behind him.
Jacob Fincham-Dukes won silver with his opening leap of 8.06, but France claimed it was a foul.
The event no longer uses the conventional plasticine indent method; instead, a laser beam measures whether the foot has over the line.
Despite no foul being suggested by the technology, the jump was ruled out, demoting Fincham-Dukes to sixth and elevating Sweden’s Thobias Montler to second and France’s Jules Pommery to third with 8.06m jumps.
British team may appeal.
