BARCELONA: Russian teen Stanislav Emelyanov produced an upset in the men`s 20km walk to take the first gold of the European Athletics Championships and push favourite Alex Schwazer of Italy into second here on Tuesday.
The 19-year-old is the latest walker to emerge from the successful Russian production line and finished the race in 1:20.10, ahead of Schwazer and Portugal`s Joao Vieira, who repeated his bronze from Gothenburg four years ago.
"It was a great race for me and the circuit was fast just how I like it," said Emelyanov.
Schwazer, the 50km Olympic champion stormed into the lead but Emelyanov was able to keep with him and then he launched a bid for the front himself.
"I thought I would be fighting for first place for much longer but I was out in the lead quite early on," he said.
There were no surprises in the men`s 400m qualifying as favourites Martyn Rooney of Great Britain, Jonathan Borlee of Belgium and Ireland`s David Gillick all made it through comfortably for the final on Friday.
It is set to be a hotly fought race as there is little to pick between the three runners with Borlee having recorded narrowly the fastest time this season with 44.77secs.
Also in contention is Rooney`s compatriot Michael Bingham who won his heat and has gotten stronger as the season has progressed.
"I just tried to go out there and push hard for 300m and then look up to see where I was. I finished well so I`m happy," he said.
The women`s 400m hurdles heats also went according to plan as Russian Natalya Antyukh recorded the fastest time of 54.29secs.
In second came Bulgarian Vania Stambolova, who was the only other athlete to register a time of under 55 seconds.
Russia were also top in qualifying for Wednesday`s women`s long jump final with Lyudmila Kolchanova recording 6.87m.
Kolchanova, who suffered a drop in form after winning the European title four years ago, now looks like she is back to her best.
There was talk of a Russian clean sweep but they are not dominating as expected with Olga Kucherenko just sneaking through as the final qualifier from her group and Tatyana Kotova could only jump 6.48m and is out of the competition.
Instead Portuguese Naide Gomes, who took silver at the last European Championships qualified second with a distance of 6.81m.
BDST: 1858 HRS, JULY 27, 2010
