Keizer and Meppelink were crowned continental champions courtesy of a 21-16, 26-24 victory over their rivals.

The Dutch pair had each won the European Championships before - and with the same partner in Marleen van Iersel - but today's triumph marked their first as a team.

The 15th seeds reached the final thanks to a battling 20-22, 21-17, 15-12 win against the Czech Republic's Barbora Hermannová and Marketa Slukova.

The Czech pair claimed third place after Spain's Liliana Fernández and Elsa Baquerizo withdrew before the match.

In the men's tournament, Aleksandrs Samoilovs and Janis Smedins of Latvia remain on course to go one better than the silver medal they won last year by booking their place in the semi-finals.

The Latvian duo reached the last four as they came from behind to beat The Netherlands' Alexander Brouwer and Robert Meeuwsen 13-21, 22-20, 15-10.

Samoilovs and Smedins are now due to fce Ilya Leshukov and Konstantin Semenov after they defeated Oleg Stoyanovskiy and Igor Velichko 26-24, 21-17 in an all-Russian quarter-final.

The other semi-final contest is scheduled be between Pablo Herrera and Adrián Gavira of Spain and the Norwegian team of Anders Berntsen Mol and Christian Sandlie Sørum.

Herrera and Gavira defeated Nico Beeler and Marco Krattiger of Switzerland 21-19, 21-18, while Mol and Sørum recorded a hard-fought 13-21, 21-16, 15-11 success over Dutch duo Jasper Bouter and Christiaan Varenhorst.

The tournament is due to conclude tomorrow with the men's semi-finals, third-place play-off and final.