Lemaitre (pictured above) sank to his knees on the infield and put his head in his hands when his victory was confirmed in 10.09sec, just ahead of Vicaut, who clocked 10.12, in a final finished by only five men.

Earlier in the evening, Lalova (pictured below) had produced an irresistible surge over the final 30m to overhaul Olesya Povh of the Ukraine, finishing in 10.28 on a chill evening to complete business in this stadium unfinished for seven years.

Lalova's ambitions of winning a world title in this stadium at the 2005 Helsinki World Championships a year after finishing one place off the podium at the Athens 2004 Games ended on June 14, 2005, when she broke her femur in an accidental collision with another athlete while warming up for a meeting in Athens.

"I had to watch the World Championships on television from hospital," the 28-year-old recalled here before the Championships began.

"That's why it is so special to me to be able to come back to Helsinki and do what I could not do in 2005.

"Winning this title has been my dream for many years."


Victory here was a vital piece of planning for the Rieti-based sprinter as she looks ahead to another global final at the London Olympics.

"This year is the Olympic Games, and we have to show the world that the athletics in Europe is at a really high level.

"And I think that from here we will show future Olympic champions and finalists."

After Simone Collio of Italy had been disqualified for a false start, the men's final was swiftly reduced to six runners as Lithuania's Rytis Sakalauskas, who had earlier forced a recall and earned a warning from the judges, unaccountably failed to get off his blocks, and then to five as Latvia's Ronalds Arajs tripped 30m from home.

"It was a very difficult race after two false starts," said Lemaitre (pictured below, right).

"It was difficult to concentrate.

"But I was always confident about winning the title."

Bronze went to Norway's Jaysuma Saidy Noure in 10.17, with Harry Aikines-Aryeetey (pictured below, second right) of Britain fourth in 10.31.

Elsewhere, Vítězslav Veselý of the Czech Republic achieved the one title his coach, the former Olympic and world champion Jan Železný, had never earned.


With Železný watching calmly from the stands, as is his wont, Veselý responded to the unexpected opening effort and personal best of 83.23 metres by Russia's Valeriy Iordan with a second round winning effort of 83.72m on a day when all the main contenders struggled to throw far, with Olympic champion Andreas Thorkildsen having to settle for fourth place with 81.55m, retiring after three efforts as a precaution against injury.

Finland's Ario Mannio took bronze with 82.63m, to thunderous applause from a nation which has always been in love with an event which is marked in tangible fashion by the tower rising from this Olympic Stadium – which, at 72.71m, exactly replicates the distance achieved by Matti Jarvinen in winning the 1932 Olympic javelin title.

Britain's Julia Bleasdale, third in the Olympic trials the previous weekend, ran a personal best by almost 13 seconds in the 5,000m final, but was run out of a bronze medal position in the final 30 metres in a race won by Russia's Olga Golovkina in 15min 11.70sec.

Bleasdale, who finished in 15:12.77, well inside the Olympic A qualifying mark, will now hope that performance is enough to secure her selection for the London Olympics, either in this event or the 10,000m, although the selection position is still fluid.

There is a similar doubt now over how the selectors will treat the former 800m world bronze medallist Jenny Meadows, who has been plagued with an Achilles tendon injury and had to pull out of her prospective racing here.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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