Dutch heptathlete Anouk Vetter managed to better home heroine Dafne Schippers last night as she earned a third Dutch gold at the 23^rd European Athletics Championships with 6626 points, breaking the national record of the woman who has since turned to sprinting in a big way.

The Netherlands’ world 200 metre champion Dafne Schippers lifted the home mood at the 23rd European Championships here as she delivered a fervently anticipated victory in the women’s 100m final.

The unique depth of American talent in the women’s 100 metre hurdles meant that the US Olympic Track and Field Trials were going to be painful for some world class athletes - and as things turned out, it was the athlete who ran the second fastest ever time of 12.24sec on the same track in Eugene on May 28, Keri Harrison, who failed to make the trip to Rio de Janeiro next month. 

Emma Coburn has certainly made a splash this week - on a rain-swept track at the US Olympic Track and Field trials she earned her Rio 2016 place with victory in the 3000m steeplechase a day after the release of ESPN’s annual Body Issue which featured her and other leading sporting figures in the nude.

Russian whistleblower Yuliya Stepanova, who limped home injured and last in her 800 metres heat here at the European Athletics Championships before being disqualified for a lane infringement, was today thanked for her courage by Sebastian Coe, President of the International Association of Athletics Federations, who invited her to attend the forthcoming IAAF Values Commission.

An unexpected last lunge of a 100 metres victory for home sprinter Churandy Martina provided the first full night of finals at the 23rd European Athletics Championships with a startling climax after a sequence of performances which had seen Belgium’s cancer survivor Thomas van der Plaetsen produce a heroic decathlon win here. 

Hammer throwing, for the first time ever, took centre stage at Hayward Field on the seventh day of action at the US Olympic Track and Field trials - and Gwen Berry, who returned from a three-month doping suspension that ended just before the trials, earned a Rio 2016 place behind winner Amber Campbell and third-placed Deanna Price. 

Yuliya Stepanova, already a lonely figure in athletics following her decision to whistleblow details of Russia’s doping activities, finished alone - and a distant last – here in her 800 metres heat at the European Championships.

As the US Olympic Track and Field trials in Eugene, Oregon pause to draw midweek breath, stellar performer Allyson Felix, who plans to double up over 200 and 400m at next month’s Rio Olympics, can reflect upon a task half done.

The focus of attention at the European Athletics Championships, due to get underway here tomorrow, has fallen upon an athlete who is due to run for no country - Yuliya Stepanova, the doping cheat turned whistleblower on Russian doping activities, who is on the list for the 800 metres under a neutral flag.

Svein-Arne Hansen, President of European Athletics, has praised “the brave statements and actions” of Yulia Stepanova, who will compete here at the European Athletics Championships under a neutral flag.

The US Olympic Track and Field trials, taking place in a sudden death format with only the first three proceeding, produced another piece of agonising drama as two of the leading women’s 800 metres runners - 2013 world bronze medallist Brenda Martinez and 2010 world bronze medallist Alysia Montano - crashed out with 125m to go.

Justin Gatlin and Trayvon Bromell, as expected, filled the first two 100 metres places at the US Olympic Track and Field Trials at Hayward Field in Eugene on a day when Allyson Felix backed up half of her ambition to double up in Rio 2016 by winning her 400m final.

British athlete Jenny Meadows says Russian whistleblower Yulia Stepanova, who effectively cheated her out of a place in the 800 metres final at the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Championships in 2011, should be allowed to compete at next months' Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro under a neutral flag.