By Mike Rowbottom at the Scandinavium Arena in Gothenburg

vicuatMarch 2 - France's Jimmy Vicaut won the 60 metres title here at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in 6.48sec, a personal best by 0.05 and the fastest time run in the world this year.


But it required photo-finish evidence to separate the European 100m silver medallist from Britain's James Dasaolu, who was also credited with 6.48 but was adjudged to have taken silver.

"I've been so injury-prone over the last few years and this was my first winter in a long time when I've been healthy," said Dasaolu, who had arrived here with a personal best of 6.58, reducing it to 6.52 in the semi-finals.

"I knew I was in shape but I couldn't believe the time."

It was the third world-leading performance of the second full day of action here, following the 7.01 metres recorded by Russia's Daria Klishina to win an outstanding women's long jump and the 17.70 with which Daniel Greco claimed gold in the men's triple jump.

daryaRussia's Darya Klishina won long jump gold in Gothenburg with 7.01m, the best performance in the world this year

Both these field events produced high quality competition.

In the long jump, Klishina was strongly challenged by European outdoor champion Eloyse Lesueur, who broke the French record three times, finishing on 6.90, and Sweden's Erica Jarder, who claimed the home nation's first medal of the Championships with a personal best of 6.71 in the last round.

The home followers had more to celebrate later in the session as Abeba Aregawi, their recently naturalised Ethiopian competitor, finished almost 10 seconds clear of her nearest challenger in winning 1500m gold in  4min 04.47sec.

As Aregawi crossed the line with a calm smile and a kiss to the audience, a top class field which included the Russian whose 2006 world record she narrowly missed last month, Yelena Soboleva, was only just negotiating the final bend.

Spain's Isabel Marcias won the race for silver.

Her time - 4:14.19.

Dasaolo's silver was the second medal of the day for Britain, for whom 21-year-old Holly Bleasdale won gold in the pole vault after beating Poland's 2009 world champion Anna Rogowska in a sudden-death vault-off.

Bleasdale - whose 4.77 at the UK Championships is the highest vault in Europe this year and second in the 2013 world rankings - finished the main competition level with the Pole, who was seeking to become the first woman to retain this title, with both having recorded two failures before coming to a halt at 4.72.

hollyBritain's Holly Bleasdale claimed gold in the pole vault after a sudden death jump-off with Poland's Anna Rogowska

The bar remained on 4.72 in the vault-off, which neither achieved. When it went back down to 4.67, Rogowska's failure offered Bleasdale, European under 23 champion in 2011, the opportunity to put the relative disappointment of sixth place at last year's Olympics in London behind her, and she took it.

"I wanted it so badly and the jump-off was so tiring and really drained my energy," said Bleasdale.

"So I'm so happy I got the gold.

"I can't explain how I'm feeling now but I'm so confident for the outdoors and the Worlds."

Hayle Ibrahimov won the first gold at these championships for Azerbaijan as he took the 3,000m title in 7:49.74, and the high jump title went to Russia's Sergey Mudrov, who managed a personal best of 2.35.

Meanwhile Britain's Perri Shakes-Drayton raised hopes for tomorrow's 400m individual and relay events as she won her semi-final in a personal best of 51.03, the fastest time in Europe this season.

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