France's Christophe Lemaitre claimed a third gold on the final day of the European athletics championships last night when he added the men's 4x100m title to his gold over 100m and 200m.
The 20-year-old becomes the first French athlete to achieve the feat at a major championship.
Lemaitre and team-mates Jimmy Vicaut, Pierre-Alexis Pessonneaux and Martial Mbandjock clocked 38.11sec to take the gold ahead of Italy (38.17) and Germany (38.44).
They achieved France's seventh gold and 13th medal of the championship.
Mbandjock achieved his third medal after two bronze over 100 metres and 200 metres behind Lemaitre.
In the women's race, the Ukrainian quartet of Oleysha Povh, Nataliya Pohrebnyak, Mariya Ryemyen and Yelizaveta Bryzhina stormed to gold when they finished the race in 42.29 seconds, the fastest time of the year. France placed second ahead of Poland.
Swiss Viktor Rothlin put an end to several spells of injury woe by powering to a comprehensive victory in the men's marathon.
Rothlin, the silver medallist four years ago in Gothenburg, went one better as he coped best with the oppressive heat in Barcelona and romped home a considerable distance ahead of the rest in a time of 2hrs 15min 31sec.
Spain's Jose Manuel Martinez, the strongest European at last year's World Championships coming in eighth, took silver and bronze went to Dmitriy Safronov, of Russia.
"Rothlin set a really tough pace ahead but I just tried to hold a steady rhythm and not get involved with any counter-attacks as I've tried in the past and I'm satisfied with my silver," said Martinez.
Rothlin was the top European runner in 2007 and 2008 but has since struggled with injury.
The marathon was one of the most open events at the championships with almost 20 runners contenders for a medal, but still Rothlin was among the favourites along with Spain's Jose Rios and Stefano Baldini of Italy.
The race was billed as the return of the veteran Baldini who won his first European Championship back in 1998. But it proved to be a bridge too far though as he struggled with the speed and dropped out early on.
Other finals
Women's high jump: B. Vlasic (Croatia) 2.03; 2. E. Green (Sweden) 2.01; A. Friedrich (Germany) 2.01.
Men's discus: P. Malachowski (Poland) 68.87; 2. R. Harting (Germany) 68.47; R. Fazekas (Hungary) 66.43.
Men's long jump: 1. C. Reif (Germany) 8.47; 2. K. Gomis (France) 8.24; 3. C. Tomlison (Britain) 8.23.
Men's 3,000m steeplechase: 1. M. Mekhissi-Benabbad (Germany) 8:07.87; 2. T. Bouabdellah (France) 8:09.28; 3. J. Blanco (Spain) 8:19.15.
Women's 5,000m: 1. A. Bekele (Turkey) 14:52.20; 2. E. Abeylegesse (Turkey) 14:54.44; 3. S. Moreira (Portugal) 14:54.71.
Women's 1,500m: 1. N. Fernandez (Spain) 4:00.20; 2. D. Hind (France) 4:01.17; 3. N. Rodrigues (Spain) 4:01.30.
Women's 4x400m: 1. Russia 3:21.26; 2. Germany 3:24.07; 3. Britain 3:24.32.
Men's 4x400m: 1. Russia 3:02.14; 2. Britain 3:02.25; 3. Belgium 3:02.60.