There were other double flourishes too on the third day of action in the Finnish capital.

Germany secured a little national comfort in the wake of their shattering Euro 2012 semi-final defeat by Italy with golds in the women's and men's shot put, thanks to Nadine Kleinert and their 21-year-old world champion David Storl, whose season's best of 21.58 metres left him more than a metre clear of the opposition.

Russia dominated the 800m, with the women's title going to Yelena Arzhakova and 31-year-old Yuriy Borzakovskiy (pictured below, centre) taking his first European title eight years after winning Olympic gold in Athens.

"I had good tactics today," said Borzakovskiy after timing his surge down the straight in an outside lane to perfection during a relatively slow tactical battle and finishing victorious in 1min 48.61sec.

"I came here to check my condition before the Olympics.

"Now I'm happy."


The 24-year-old Grabarz (pictured top), who lost his Lottery funding after poor performances in 2011, has established himself as an Olympic medal contender this season, improving his personal best to 2.34m indoors and 2.33m outdoors.

He earned his first major international title with a jump of 2.31m, winning on countback from Lithuania's Raivydas Stanys.

Grabarz successfully cleared 2.24m and 2.28m at the first attempt and said: "That's what clinched it, being as clinical as possible."

Williams had gone into his race knowing he needed to beat fellow Briton Nathan Woodward to lay claim to the third Olympic place behind qualifiers Dai Greene, the world champion, and Jack Green.

The Welshman, whose father JJ Williams earned high renown as a winger with the Welsh rugby union team in the 1970s, ticked all the boxes as he held off Serbia's Emir Bekric to win in 49.33, under the Olympic A-standard qualifying time.



Woodward finished seventh in 50.20.

Sharp (pictured above, right) earned her silver in dramatic circumstances as she moved up from seventh to second in the space of the finishing straight, but although she finished in a personal best time of 2:00.52 she was outside the Olympic A qualifying time of 1:59.90.

"I don't really know what to say – I am so happy that I got the medal." said the 21-year-old Scot, who had graduated a week earlier with a law degree from Edinburgh Napier University.

Her achievement came less than a week after her victory in the British trials at Birmingham, but the selectors – who are due to announce their team on Monday – are in an awkward position.

On the face of it, the only way Sharp can go to the London Olympics is if she is selected on the basis that she has achieved the Olympic 'B' standard of 2:01.30.


But taking that option means the selectors could only pick one woman for the event.

Were the selectors to choose Sharp on the basis of the outstanding competitiveness she has shown over the last few days, it would mean turning their backs on other established runners, including the only two Britons who have achieved the A standard this season – Marilyn Okoro and Emma Jackson, neither of whom excelled at the trials.

Also overlooked would be Jemma Simpson, who finished seventh in the 800m final in 2:02.14, but who has the A qualifying mark from 2011 and Jenny Meadows, the 31-year-old bronze medallist at the 2009 World Championships and 2010 European championships.

Meadows also has A qualifying marks from last year, but has been unable to race for 11 months because of an Achilles tendon injury which caused her to withdraw from competition here after it had reacted badly during the flight over.

She has said she will immediately appeal if she is not named in the British team.

Meanwhile, there was disappointment for Britain's Goldie Sayers, who finished one place outside the medals with 63.01m in the women's javelin final where newcomer Vira Rebryk (pictured above) of the Ukraine deprived Germany's 30-year-old Olympic bronze medallist Christina Obergfoll of what would have been her first major gold with a fifth round effort of 66.86m that improved her national record.

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