Russian athletes dominate in Barcelona

Russian athletes have won the most medals at the European championships in Barcelona. Their last gold came in the closing event on Sunday night.

Russia brought their event-leading tally of gold medals to ten in the men's 4 x 400 meter relay.

Vladimir Krasnov held on to hand victory to his team-mates, while a well-timed final leg from Martin Rooney gave Britain the silver, ahead of Jonathan Borlee of Belgium.

Thus, the Russian men repeated their female teammates’ earlier success in the same discipline.

Also on the final day of the championships, Dmitriy Safronov took bronze in the men's marathon, while the gold went to Swiss runner Viktor Rothlin. He made the decisive move after 25 kilometers, pulling clear of Frenchman James Theuri, and then held on to complete the distance in 2hrs 15m 31s, which is two minutes and 19 seconds ahead of home favorite Jose Manuel Martinez.

So Russia finished on top of the overall standings and the gold medal table with ten gold, six silver and eight bronze medals.

France came in second, with 18 overall, including eight gold. That is two more than Britain's six, although the UK finished one medal ahead in total, on 19.