Russia win in style at the SPAR European Team Championships

Russia were crowned as Europe’s top athletics nation after winning the SPAR European Team Championships in Bergen, Norway, on Sunday. They scored 379.5 points, Great Britain finished second with 317 points while Germany had to settle for the third place with 304.5 points.

Russia won the 2010 SPAR European Team Championships in Bergen, Norway, and were crowned as Europe’s top athletics nation on Sunday.

The new champions scored 379.5 points across the two days, winning by a massive 62.5 points.

Great Britain finished second with 317 points while, in a close race for third place, defending champions Germany got the final place on the podium, bouncing back after a dismal first day to total 304.5 points.

Building on their eight victories on Saturday, Russia added another five wins on Sunday.

The 2004 Olympic Games 800m gold medallist Yuriy Borzakovskiy had delayed his 2010 outdoor debut over two laps of the track until he arrived in Bergen but showed that he had prepared well and notched up a confident and composed victory in 1:45.41 to start the ball rolling for Russia.

Barely had people had time to draw breath after Borzakovskiy's audacious run from the front after the first 200 metres than Tatyana Dektyareva went to her marks for the next event of the track and sped to a European-leading 100m hurdles time of 12.68.

Anna Avdeyeva then produced a season’s best in the Shot Put of 19.14m to add another 12 points to their total and the 4x400m relay teams finished off the weekend by getting a brace of victories in the final two events.

The women’s 4x400m relay team delivered the expected victory in the penultimate event. With 400m hurdles winner Nataliya Antyukh and individual 400m winner Kseniya Ustalova on the last two legs, a win was almost a certainty but the quartet still showed their class by clocking a world-leading 3:23.76.

Inspired by their women’s performance, the men’s 4x400m team followed in their footsteps and brought the curtain down in impressive fashion at the second edition of these innovative championships with a win in a European-leading time of 3:01.72.

The plaudits have to go to anchor leg runner Vladimir Karasnov, who is still only 19 but was timed at 44.11 for his split and managed to hold off the challenge of Great Britain’s Michael Bingham, the fastest European over one lap of the track last year.

Russia’s runaway victory was secured with five events still to go after Olga Kucherenko finished second in the women’s Long Jump.

Despite the fact that Kucherenko was well short of her world-leading jump of 7.13m this season, her effort of 6.67m was worth 11 points behind the French winner Eloyse Leseuer who had a personal best of 6.78m, and enough to give Russia an unbeatable lead.

However, many of the other 11 nations in action in Bergen also had their moments in the sun.

There was also a European-leading mark in the women’s 200m when Ukrainian sprinter Yelizaveta Bryzhina produced a stunning burst of acceleration off the bend, going from third to first, to win in a new personal best of 22.71.

The biggest surprise on the second day was also delivered by a Ukrainian athlete when Viktor Kuznetsov pulled off a shock win in the Triple Jump.

Kuznetsov's first-round jump of 17.26m, a personal best by three centimetres, was sufficient to leave Great Britain's Phillips Idowu, the 2009 World Championships gold medallist, and France's Teddy Tamgho, the 2010 World Indoor Championships gold medallist who also jumped 17.98m two weeks ago, in second and third place.

Running Kuznetsov close among the second day surprises was the Javelin win by Germany’s Mattias De Zordo, who threw 83.80m to leave the host’s hero Andreas Thorkildsen having to settle for second place with a relatively modest 82.98m.

It was the current Olympic, world and European champion’s first defeat of the season after four successive victories, which have included him throwing a world-leading 90.37m last month.

France’s Martial Mbandjock ran 20.55, the second fastest European time of the year despite running an uneven race by his own admission and also having to sprint into a headwind.

Equally impressive was Italy’s Antonietta Di Martino becoming only the second European woman to go over 2.00m outdoors this year when she won the High Jump.

Greece, hosts Norway and Finland occupied the last three places in Bergen and were relegated. The trio will compete in the First League next year and will be replaced by the promoted Czech Republic, Sweden and Portugal, who all bounce straight back after being relegated 12 months ago.

European athletics fans will have Scandinavia in their sights again in 12 months time as the Swedish capital Stockholm will be the venue for the 2011 SPAR European Team Championships.

Click here for the Team standings.