Lemaitre, Idowu, Russians shine on Day 3

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) - Christophe Lemaitre of France easily advanced to the 200 meter final on Thursday as he pursues a sprint double at the European Championships, while Russia added to its medal tally with a 1-2 finish in the men's high jump.

Lemaitre, who won the 100 on Wednesday and is favored to match Obikwelu's feat of winning a sprint double, led the semifinals with a best time of 20.39 - 0.11 seconds quicker than Jaysuma Saidy Ndure of Norway, who topped his group.

"Tomorrow is possible," said Lemaitre, who admitted he was tired in the morning after winning the 100 gold on Wednesday night. "Now I need to focus on the task ahead."

Defending champion Francis Obikwelu of Portugal withdrew from qualifying because of a muscle injury to his right leg and after finishing a disappointing fourth in the 100 on Wednesday. Portugal was working to get the 31-year-old Obikwelu available for the 4x100 relay, with heats beginning on Saturday.

The defending champion in the 110 hurdles also exited, as Latvia's Olijars Stanislavs was disqualified from his heat because of a false start. Daniel Kiss of Hungary led the field with a time of 13.44 seconds.

Aleksander Shustov leapt 2.33 meters to pip fellow Russian Ivan Ukhov - the reigning world indoor and European indoor champion - to the high jump gold.

Russia leads the medal count with nine - including three golds - while Britain is next with four after Martyn Bernard's season-best jump of 2.29 meters netted him bronze.

In 5,000-meter qualifying, 10,000 champion Mo Farah of Britain advanced to the final after leading his heat with a time of 13:38.26 in the rain. Defending 5,000 champion Jesus Espana of Spain also progressed to Saturday's final in 13:38.47.

In the decathlon, Romain Barras of France held a five-point lead over the Netherlands' Eelco Sintnicolaas with only the 1,500-meter left to run.

Overnight decathlon leader Oleksiy Kasyanov of Ukraine pulled out with a hamstring injury.

Meanwhile, organizers decided to cancel the heats for the women's 1,500 meters because of a lack of competitors. That means all 23 women will race in Friday's semifinals.

Idowu wins triple jump

World champion Phillips Idowu of Britain has won the men's triple jump.

Idowu leapt a personal-best 17.81 meters on Thursday to score his first European victory at Barcelona's Olympic stadium and give Britain its fifth medal of the competition.

Former Olympic silver champion Marian Oprea of Romania scored silver with a leap of 17.51 meters.

Teddy Tamgho, the world indoor champion who set the third best leap of 17.98 earlier this summer, scored bronze with a leap of 17.45 meters for France's third medal.

Barras wins decathlon

France's Romain Barras has won the decathlon after edging his closest challenger in the final event.

Leading by only five points going into the 1,500-meter run, Barras began pumping his arms 50 meters from the finish line with Eelco Sintnicolaas of the Netherlands trailing too far behind to catch up.

Barras managed his first major triumph with a score of 8,453 points thanks to his second-place finish in the 1,500. Hans van Alphen of Belgium won with a time of 4 minutes, 21.06 seconds.

Sintnicolaas took the silver medal with 8,436 points. Andrei Krauchanka of Belarus took bronze with 8,370 points.

Sailer wins women's 100m

Germany's Verena Sailer has won the women's 100-meter final by a neck.

With Veronique Mang looking set to surge past, Sailer found a burst at the end and stuck out her upper body to get over the finish line just ahead of the Frenchwoman on Thursday.

Sailer, the European indoor bronze winner in the 60 meters, won with a time of 11.10 seconds, to Mang's 11.11.

Myriam Veronique ran in 11.18 seconds to take bronze for France, which also won two medals in the men's 100-meter final on Wednesday. Christophe Lemaitre won gold for the men.

France now has six medals to trail only Russia's leading count of nine.

Germans go 1-2 in women's javelin

Linda Stahl of Germany has managed a personal best throw of 66.81 meters to win the women's javelin.

Stahl used a nice gust of tail wind to take gold and lead a German 1-2 as Olympic bronze medalist Christina Obergfoll threw 65.58 meters on Thursday.

Olympic champion Barbora Spotakova of the Czech Republic won bronze with her best effort of 65.36.