A look back at some of the best moments of the 12-17 August Zurich 2014 European Athletics Championships.
Zurich is paved with gold for glorious Jo
Jo Pavey produced the performance of her life to win gold in a thrilling 10,000m final on the opening night of the European Athletics Championships in Zurich.
At the age of 40, and less than a year after giving birth to her second child, Great Britain's Pavey lifted the first major title of her career.
Germany's David Storl was also back in impressive fashion as he won the first gold medal of the Championships on the first day when he retained his shot put title.
Storl, the reigning world champion, delivered the winning effort of 21.41m from his first attempt and no matter what the others did, they could not challenge him.
Dasaolu dazzles as Britain grab three golds
James Dasaolu added his name to the long list of British European 100m champions with an impressive victory over defending champion Christophe Lemaitre on the Wednesday, completing a golden 90 minutes for his country after Mo Farah won the 10,000m and Tiffany Porter the women’s sprint hurdles.
In between, another French sprinter had to settle for second as Dafne Schippers claimed the women’s 100m ahead of Myriam Soumaré.
Farah completed the first half of his quest for another double, joining Finland’s Ilmari Salminen, Emil Zatopek and German Jurgen Haase as two-time winner of the European 10,000m crown.
German powerhouse Robert Harting outclassed the field to retain his discus title with a third round throw of 66.07m. As usual he celebrated by ripping of his shirt and flexing his muscles at photographers.
Spotakova completes her collection
Barbora Spotakova became the second recently returned mother to earn gold in Zurich with a dramatic victory in the javelin on Thursday evening.
The Czech Republic’s double Olympic champion and former world champion, who took last season off after giving birth to a son, had never won a European title, but moved from third to first with her fifth effort of 64.41m.
There was more shock and surprise at the end of the evening as the disqualification was announced of France’s Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad from what would have been his third consecutive European gold in the 3000m steeplechase.
The Frenchman removed his shirt as he rounded the final bend and encouraged the crowd to respond with upward hand gestures before jamming the shirt into his mouth and clearing the final barrier to finish well clear of the field 8:25.30.
But his victory was annulled after a successful application from Spain, whose athletes finished fourth and fifth, relating to “clothing, shoes and bibs”.
The silver, or rather golden, lining for France was that the title thus passed to Mekhissi-Benabbad’s team-mate Yoann Kowal.
What was not in doubt was the retention of his 110m hurdles title by Russia’s Sergey Shubenkov in 13.19 ahead of Britain’s William Sharman, who took silver in 13.27. Strong favourite Pascal Martinot-Lagarde, who recorded 12.95 in July, had to settle for bronze.
Schippers shows a Dutch of class to add 200m gold
At a packed Letzigrund Stadium on Friday night, Dafne Schippers produced a second sensational run of the week to match the feats of Fanny Blankers-Koen 64 years earlier and land the sprint double.
After her brilliant 100m triumph, Schippers won the 200m in 22.03, a national record and the fastest time by a European since 1995 to demonstrate how right she was to opt out of the heptathlon for these individual events.
It was a night the Swiss crowd will remember for a long time as Kariem Hussein won gold for the host nation in a dramatic 400m hurdles.
He dug so deep to hold on and deliver Switzerland’s only gold medal of the championships, but what a performance it was!
Sifan Hassan, of the Netherlands, capped her emphatic season with a fine performance to beat Sweden's Abeba Aregawi in a superb 1500m final, while Martyn Rooney finally won a major gold medal with a perfectly timed run in the 400m final.
Poland's Adam Kszczot proved himself the supreme star of the 800m as he added the outdoor crown to his double European Athletics Indoor titles.
Sandra Perkovic is an unstoppable force
The Croatian thrower had an appreciative crowd all to herself as she rounded off the action on Saturday. She claimed a third European discus title with a national record of 71.08m – the finest throw in the world since 1992.
Perkovic completed a hat-trick of European hat-tricks on the day, following the achievement of pole vaulter Renaud Lavillenie and triple jumper Olha Saladuha in taking their third European golds.
Renaud Lavillenie exerts a similar dominance to Perkovic on his event, and he required just two first-time clearances to secure his third consecutive European gold in the pole vault – and his 20th consecutive victory.
He then attempted to break Radion Gataulin's 6.00m Championships record but came up just short. His emotional response on the podium shows what this competition means to him and that winning never gets old.
Olympic champion Krisztian Pars defended his hammer title emphatically with a final effort of 82.69m, the best in the world this year. The 32-year-old Hungarian had already secured the title thanks to his third round 82.18, although Poland’s Pawel Fajdek gave him a scare in the fifth round by coming within 0.13 of that effort to take silver.
Table-topping Britain win five golds on extraordinary last day in Zurich
Great Britain finished top of the medal standings with 12 golds overall from their set of 23, beating their previous record of 19 from the European Athletics Championships in Barcelona in 2010.
France were second, with nine golds out of 23, and Germany were third with four golds from their eight.
Mo Farah, Martin Rooney and Adam Gemili all won their second titles of the week before Greg Rutherford added the European crown to his Olympic and Commonwealth titles and the British women's 4x100m team ended the track competition with glory.
There was also personal satisfaction for France's Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad who won the 1500m after being disqualified in the 3000m steeplechase.
'My only possible reaction after the disqualification was to go back and win this title - for my family, for those who are close to me, for my coach,' he said.
The women's 3000m steeplechase was a remarkable moment for Antje Moldner-Schmidt who came through over the final barrier to win after her cancer battle in 2010.
She made her move over the last and could hardly believe it as she won, raising her hands as she reached the line before putting them on her head.
At 35, and in a career where she has retired in the past before returning, Spain's Ruth Beitia successfully defended her high jump title to improve on her record from Helsinki 2012 of being the oldest women's medallist in the event at these championships.