Throughout the end of year holiday period, European Athletics is offering a day by day review of the European Athletics Championships held from 12-17 August in Zurich.
Day 5, Saturday 16 August, Lavillenie is all smiles as he soars to a golden hat-trick
The penultimate day of the European Athletics Championships in Zurich became the afternoon which Renaud Lavillenie had spent the summer planning for.
In the year where the French pole vaulter had broken the indoor world record in February with 6.16m, he now became one of the stars of the show at Letzigrund Stadium as he won European gold for the third time in a row.
Lavillenie triumphed with 5.90m to beat Poland's Pawel Wojciechowski who was second on countback ahead of Jan Kudlicka, of the Czech Republic, and France's Kevin Menaldo, the latter two sharing bronze as all three finished with 5.70m.
'Five months ago I could barely walk after my world record,' said Lavillenie. 'Winning gold is never anything normal, this was very tough on me.'
It was quite a day for the French who celebrated victory in the women's marathon in the morning with a superb run from Christelle Daunay who broke the championship record time as she won in 2:25:14.
On one of the toughest courses in the history of the championships, where the runners had to make a steep climb four times as the route was on a loop around the city, Daunay had too much for the rest of the field, beating Italy's world championship silver medallist Valeria Straneo, who was second again, in 2:25:27, with Jessica Augusto, of Portugal, third in 2:25:41.
Hungary's Krisztian Pars defended his European hammer crown in a fantastic final round which saw him throw a personal best and world lead of 82.69m as he beat Poland's world champion Pawel Fajdek with 82.05m and Russia’s Sergey Litvinov, who won bronze with 79.35m.
After her victory in the 1500m, the Netherlands' Sifan Hassan was looking for a famous double in the 5000m but on this occasion, her Swedish rival proved too strong for her.
Hassan had beaten Abeba Aregawi to gold over the shorter distance, yet Meraf Bahta had too much kick in the home straight as she won in 15:31.39 with Hassan second in 15:31.79 ahead of Dutch teammate Susan Kuijken in 15:32.82.
Gold in the women's 800m went to Maryna Arzamasova, of Belarus, in a race of the highest quality as she beat defending champion, Great Britain's Lynsey Sharp.
Arzamasova won in a European leading time of 1:58.15 from Sharp in a personal best of 1:58.80 with Poland's Joanna Jozwik third in 1:59.63, also a personal best.
Sharp's fellow Scot Eilidh Child won the 400m hurdles with another splendid run in a splendid year.
Just a few weeks after winning silver in front of her home fans at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow - just as Sharp had done - Child triumphed in Zurich in 54.48 from Ukraine's Anna Titimets in 54.56, a personal best, with Russian Irina Davydova third in 54.60.
Ukraine's Olha Saladukha was on the top of the podium again as she landed a hat-trick of European triple jump titles.
Her success came with her second round 14.73m which was never threatened in the remaining four rounds as she beat Russians Yekaterina Koneva, who was second with 14.69m, and Irina Gumenyuk, third with 14.46m.
And there was also a hat-trick of golds for Croatia's Sandra Perkovic who was stunning in the discus which she won with 71.08m, a fifth round effort that was not only a world lead and national record but the furthest anyone has thrown since 1992.