• European Athletics Championships

Idowu crowned triple jump champion after lifetime best

Phillips Idowu ignored the difficult conditions to win triple jump gold © Getty Images

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Britain's Phillips Idowu recorded a personal best to leap to triple jump glory at the European Athletics Championships in Barcelona.

The world champion and the commonwealth champion capped off the grand slam by jumping 17.81m - his lifetime best performance.

Idowu came into the competition on the back of a largely difficult season but he immediately put a marker down with a first round effort of 17.46 into a minus headwind. His second effort was a centimetre better and while Idowu appeared calm and in control, rival Teddy Tamgho tried to force the issue and ultimately could not find the distance to match the Brit.

The best was saved for last as Idowu executed all three facets of the triple jump perfectly to record a personal best of 17.81, leaving his rivals well off the pace.

"I've always worked hard and by the grace of god I've come out a gold medallist," Idowu told BBC Sport. "It's been a tough year, I don't know how but it just seemed to come. I knew I would have to do a big jump to win ever since March from the way Teddy was jumping. But me and my coach we got it right and we planned for this day. I suffered a few defeats earlier in the season and got a bit of stick but I had to be strong and it's come to pass."

Idowu immediately turned his attentions to London 2012, where he will aim to complete the grand slam of gold medals.

"There is one more medal in my career I need to win and that will come in a couple of years," he said. "I've worked hard for this, people think I'm a lucky athlete, but I'm not lucky, I've been doing this for 10 years now. I win gold medals. That's what I do."

Martyn Bernard overcame tough conditions to win a bronze medal in the men's high jump. Excess surface water made the setting for the event far from ideal but Bernard overcame early struggles to earn a place on the rostrum alongside Ivan Ukhov and gold medal winner Aleksandr Shustov.

After leaving it until his third jump before clearing 2.23m, he cleared 2.29m on his first attempt and narrowly missed out on a lifetime best. Tom Parsons, who scraped through qualifying, failed to adjust to the slippery track and crashed out of the competition after failing on his third and final attempt at the opening height of 2.19m.

Great Britain duo Dai Greene and Rhys Williams both secured places in Saturday's 400m hurdles final after impressing in their respective semi-final heats. Greene looked like he had more in the tank as he crossed the line in 49.49 seconds while fellow Welshman, Williams, also won his heat in a time of 49.61.

Elsewhere, Mo Farah remained on course for a second gold medal after safely negotiating his way through to the final of the 5000m, where he will be joined by Chris Thompson.

After storming to 10,000 glory, Farah could have been forgiven for feeling a little jaded but, if anything, the win seemed to give him extra energy as he strolled through in first place. Thompson came fourth in his heat in a time of 13 minutes 35.58 seconds.

In the men's 800m semis, Michael Rimmer cruised through to the showpiece while Verena Sailer just did enough to win the women's 100m.

© ESPN Sports Media Ltd.