France were the clear favourites thanks to Lemaitre's triumphs in the individual 100m and 200m as well as Martial Mbandjock's double bronze medal efforts.

But it was a tight final with the French winning in a time of 38.11sec while Italy took silver, just 0.06 of a second behind. Germany came home in third.

"We worked very well together," said Lemaitre.

"Of all the medals won this one feels the most precious because it was a team effort."

There was disappointment for France in the women's 4x100m relay with the Ukraine the surprise winners leaving a team which included silver and bronze medallists in the individual event - Veronique Mang and Myriam Soumare - in second.

The impressive performance from the Ukraine saw them set the fastest time in the world this year.

Nevertheless it helped France finish second in the medals table with a total of 18 medals, eight of which were gold.

Russia had double success in the men's and women's 4x400m relays, which consolidated their position at the top of the table by taking their overall total to 24, 10 of them gold.

They have an embarrassment of riches in the women's individual event and so it was no surprise to see them storm away to victory and the battle was more for second place which Germany took just ahead of Britain.

The men's event was a tighter affair and they just held on to gold ahead of Britain, anchored by Martyn Rooney, with Belgium third.

It Britain's total medal haul to 19 - their best ever.

Six of them were gold and left them third in the medals table.

High jump's current world star Blanka Vlasic (pictured) took gold as expected with a jump of 2.03 metres.

The double world champion has not been reaching the heights she has set herself in previous years but she is still way out in front and won the competition ahead of Emma Green, of Sweden, and Germany's Ariane Friedrich.

French duo Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad and Bouabdallah Tahri dominated the 3000m steeplechase to take gold and silver while Spain's Jose Luis Blanco took bronze.

Nuria Fernandez produced an inspired run in the women's 1500m to claim gold with a personal best while Spain's Natalia Rodriguez took silver.

Bronze went to France's Hind Dehiba, narrowly ahead of Britain's Lisa Dobriskey while favourite Anna Alminova, of Russia, was well down in sixth.

Former world-record holder Elvan Abeylegesse was unable to add the 5,000m to her 10,000m crown with her Turkish team-mate Alemitu Bekele overtaking her in the final straight.

It was a tough battle between the pair and Sara Moreira, of Portugal, but with perhaps her legs having tired from the exertion earlier in the week, Abeylegesse was unable to stretch away and Bekele came past her.

She did have enough though to hold out for second ahead of Moreira.

German Christian Reif set the season's world best distance to win the long jump gold.

He also smashed the championship record as he leapt to 8.47m.

Second and third went to Kafetien Gomis, of France, and Britain's Chris Tomlinson.

World and Olympic silver medallist Piotr Malachowski, of Poland, took gold in the discus with Robert Harting and Robert Fazekas, of Germany and Hungary, respectively winning silver and bronze.

A determined race from Swiss Victor Rothlin led him to a comprehensive victory in the marathon in the morning session.

He romped home a considerable distance ahead of the rest in a time of 2 hours 15min 31sec, with Spain's Chema Martinez and Russia's Dmitriy Safronov, second and third.


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