Francis Obikwelu stuns Chambers and Lemaitre at Euro indoors

Paris: Portugal`s Francis Obikwelu upset defending champion Dwain Chambers and home favourite Christophe Lemaitre to seize the 60 metres title at the European indoor championships.

Lemaitre suffered from one of his notoriously bad starts and Obikwelu, the 2004 Olympic 100 metres silver medallist, sailed to victory in a national record of 6.53 seconds. Chamber`s season`s best of 6.54 was only good enough for silver. Lemaitre slumped on his haunches shaking his head with the disappointed Paris crowd agog at his third-placed finish after he had dominated qualifying. French fans did have something to cheer, however, when Teddy Tamgho broke the indoor triple jump world record for the second time in two months with the final yet to be completed. Helen Clitheroe had earlier given Britain their second gold of the championships when she edged Russia`s Olesya Syreva in the women`s 3,000.Her compatriot Mo Farah had successfully defended his title in the men`s event on Saturday. Compatriot Jenny Meadows had to settle for silver in the women`s 800 after Yevgeniya Zinurova pipped her to the line and Darya Klishina continued Russia`s strong performance with a 6.80 leap to take the women`s long jump crown. A Polish one-two in the men`s 800 final wowed the capacity crowd at the Bercy complex by the Seine with world indoor bronze medallist Adam Kszczot this time seizing victory in front of European outdoor champion Marcin Lewandowski. Manuel Olmedo set a season`s best of three minutes 41.03 seconds to give Spain some rare track success in the men`s 1,500 final.With Blanka Vlasic and Ariane Friedrich among a host of absentees for the championships, women`s high jump favourite Antonietta Di Martino finally took gold for Italy after years of silvers in big events. Andrei Krauchanka of Belarus earlier grabbed the first gold on the final day of competition when he triumphed in the men`s heptathlon final with a score of 6,282. Bureau Report