Myriam Soumaré of France takes a victory lap after winning the women's 200m gold on Saturday.

Myriam Soumaré has had quite a championships. Scratch that. Myriam Soumaré has had an unbelievable championships.

Unfancied in the 100m, she grabbed a shock bronze behind her team-mate Véronique Mang. Utterly unfancied in the 200m, she emerged from nowhere to win the final this evening and deny the favourite Aleksandra Fedoriva of Russia in 22.32, a time almost seven-tenths quicker than she has ever run before.

No wonder she screamed and screamed after smashing through the finish line metres ahead of the field. This was a performance beyond her wildest dreams.

“I cannot believe what happened tonight. It is amazing,” she said. “I gave all I had inside me to push myself to that finish line.”

The 23-year-old’s story almost defies the telling. Only added to the team three weeks ago, she arrived here as a complete outsider. Even after her shock medal in the 100m she was ranked 50-1 for the 200m.

No wonder, for she arrived in Barcelona with a PB set this year of 23.01, six-tenths slower than the Russian favourite. And she only made the final after finishing third in the semi, hardly setting the tongues wagging.

Indeed, the only threat to a possible Russian sweep appeared to be Yelizaveta Bryzhina, but the young Ukrainian had to be satisfied with silver despite running a PB 22.44.

Fedoriva was aghast in third, outdipped on the line by Bryzhina but given the same time.

The first shock happened when Mang broke from the blocks much too early, without the gun even being fired. No-else moved and Mang walked sullenly from the track.

But these have been great championships for the French, and Soumaré wasn’t about to spoil the party.

Drawn in the outside lane with seemingly quicker women in all seven lanes inside her, she burst out of the blocks, matching Fedoriva around the turn and into the straight.

With the other Russians, Anastasiya Kapachinskaya and Yuliya Chermonshanskaya, adrift, surely Fedorova would come through as Soumaré tired? After all, this was the Frenchwoman’s sixth race in five days.

But it was quite the reverse. Soumaré held her form superbly as Fedorova’s efforts to make up the ground came to nothing and Bryzhina came by on the inside to take silver on the line.

Soumaré gaped in disbelief – at the win, at the time, at suddenly being Europe’s number one – and leapt into the arms of the championships mascot before falling to the track on her back, kicking her heels against the ground in joy and roaring into the air.

“I was afraid of the Russians because they were the favourites,” she said. “I did not expect such a performance from myself. The last metres were crazy. Now I am the European leader. I cannot believe that!”

“I put everything I had on the track,” said Fedoriva. “Soumaré clocked 22.32, that’s too fast.”

Only Muriel Hurtis has ever won this title for France before, and now the unheralded, almost unselected Soumaré was the first French woman to win medals in both sprints at a Europeans.

What’s more, her gold was France’s fifth at these championships, more than it’s ever won before. As she looked to the future, Soumaré still has room to spare a thought for Mang.

“I feel for Véronique,” she said. “I hope to share the podium with her in another competition.”