Prague: Britain’s Richard Kilty made a fine addition to his world indoor gold as he won the 60-metre race at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Prague yesterday.
Kilty clocked 6.51sec as he beat Germany’s Christian Blum (6.58) and Julian Reus (6.60).
He was the only Briton running in the finals after Chijindu Ujah had been disqualified for a false start.
Sean Safo-Antwi failed to reach the finals by a hundredth of a second.
“My second gold medal indoors, now I am ready to show something outdoors too and I am working on it very hard,” said the 25-year-old Kilty.
“Maybe there were some people who thought I was just lucky in Sopot (in 2014) but I am confident and this confirmed I am in a good shape.”
Dwain Chambers did not make it to Prague as the British federation decided to sideline the controversial 36-year-old legend.
Other major absentees on the shortest track included French sprinters Christophe Lemaitre and defending champion Jimmy Vicaut.
Dafne Schippers equalled this year’s world-leading time of 7.05sec to take 60m gold.
“Every medal counts and I appreciate this gold a lot,” said the Dutch European 100m and 200m champion.
Schippers revealed new plans ahead of the world outdoor championships in Beijing in August.
“I will focus on heptathlon now. I already train for the multi events.”
Britain’s 19-year-old sprinter Dina Asher-Smith equalled the British record at 7.08sec to come second ahead of Germany’s Verena Sailer, the 2010 European outdoor champion (7.09).
Russian high jumper Daniyil Tsyplakov took the honours ahead of Italy’s Silvano Chesani and Greece’s Adonios Mastoras who shared second with all three clearing 2.31m.
Poland’s Marcin Lewandowski took gold in the men’s 800m at 1min 46.67sec ahead of Ireland’s Mark English and Thijmen Kupers of the Netherlands.
Selina Buechel of Switzerland won women’s 800m in 2min 01.95sec, beating Olympic bronze medalist Yekaterina Poistogova from Russia and defending champion Nataliya Lupu from Ukraine.
Meanwhile, Russian athletics, in the dock after recent allegations about widespread doping among their elite performers, was back on top of the medal table.
In the first major international athletics event since the scandal emerged last year, Russia finished the three-day championships at the O2 Arena in Prague with six golds -- twice as many as any other country -- and two silvers.
France were the next best with three golds.
Russians topped the podium three times yesterday, with Daniyil Tsyplakov winning the high jump with a 2.31m leap, Ilya Shkurenyov taking the heptathlon title with 6,353 points and Yekaterina Koneva leaping 14.69m in the triple jump.
World indoor champion Koneva, who started out as a sprint and long jump specialist, came back from a two-year doping ban in 2009, having failed an in-competition doping test in 2007. AGENCIES
