Germany's Verena Sailer (right) celebrates her 100m gold with France's Veronique Mang and Miriam Soumaré who bagged the silver and bronze medals respectively.

In a race every bit as pulsating as the men's final of the previous day, Germany's Verena Sailer carried off the biggest prize of her career, snatching gold in a personal best 11.10, winning by by the slender margin of 0.01 from France's Veronique Mang who also set new figures of 11.11.

“Wow, I'm European champion,” said an ecstatic Sailer. “I can't believe it. The race was amazing.”

“I had a good feeling during the race,” said Mang. “When you are at the European championships you only want to give your best. I have really enjoyed this particular moment of my career.”

There was another medal for France with Miriam Soumaré taking a surprise bronze, a fair return for an audacious attempt to take the ultimate prize from the more fancied medallists ahead of her. After only clocking 11.35 in Chaux-les-Fonds three weeks ago, Soumaré was only added at the last minute to the team. It turned out to be an inspired decision.

“After a difficult beginning to the season, I put everything into this race,” said the 23-year-old. “I cannot believe what I achieved. I am so happy to win bronze. I put all my strength into this run. It was fantastic when I saw my name on the screen.”

It was Soumaré, silver in last year's Mediterranean Games, who got the explosive start, though the statistics show that Sailer was every bit as fast out of the blocks. To the naked eye, though, Soumaré had charged into the lead with clear daylight between her and the rest.

Before coming to Barcelona, Sailer had promised that, no matter what, she would not panic, but run her own race and she carried out her own advice to perfection. Digging into her reserves, she got her shoulders working and proceeded to haul in the second-string Frenchwoman.

But the danger was not over yet because on her right the more muscular frame of Mang was looming large. In her semi, Mang had reduced her personal best by 0.08 and was clearly in the mood for more.

Summoning up all her strength, she went elbow to elbow with Sailer and appeared to move marginally ahead with the line within reach. But the German is a battler and, moving her shoulders even more energetically, she summoned up her remaining reserves and reached desperately, eyes tight, for the line.

Meanwhile, Soumaré's bid had faded but she was still safe in bronze with a fast finishing Ezinne Okparaebo equalling the Norwegian record she had set in the semi earlier in the evening.

At 24, Sailer already had the experience behind her to take the championships in her stride. It was three years ago in Debrecen, Hungary, that she laid the foundation for an international senior career when she took the U23 European crown.

Then in the winter of 2009, she celebrated an excellent bronze in the 60m at the European indoor championships in Torino in 7.22 (7.17PB semi-final). That bronze represented her first senior medal in a major championships and was a springboard for greater things later that summer.

On the final day of the Berlin world championships, Sailer anchored the German quartet to a resounding bronze in front of 60,000 spectators for her second major medal in six months.

A personal best in 2009 of 11.18 promised good things for 2010 and a wind-aided 11.11 win in Wattenscheid suggested that maybe the world's elite might have to start worrying.

But then came injury and 2010 has been a tentative voyage of recovery. It was not that the qualifying time for Barcelona of 11.35 was a problem. She overcame that on a handful of occasions before the trip to Bergen where she could manage no better than seventh in a disappointing 11.39.

She insisted, though, that she was not too worried because “my season is geared towards the European championships in Barcelona.” We now know that she got that absolutely right. Sailer did not get the best start, but she certainly got the best finish. It was Germany's first gold of the championships.