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Turkey's Elvan Abeylegesse enjoyed a clear-cut win in the women's 10,000 metres, destroying the field with her front-running to win by more than 12 seconds.

In all, six titles were decided on the second day of the championships.

Christophe Lemaitre powered ahead over the final part of the 100 after a poor start to win in 10.11 seconds.

While the crowd were still buzzing from the result, Europe's multi-eventers took to the track for the decathlon 400 metres knowing their job was only half done.

Ukraine's Oleksiy Kasyanov leads by just 20 points after five events from Lithuanian Darius Draudvila.

Earlier on the track as darkness started to fall, European record holder Abeylegesse took the first step towards a distance double with her comprehensive 10,000m victory.

The Ethiopian-born Turk, who also plans to run the 5,000m, set a relentless pace and destroyed the field, which included 2006 champion Inga Abitova of Russia, to win in 31 minutes 10.23 seconds.

Abitova moved into second ahead of a tiring Jessica Augusto on the penultimate lap to take the silver in 31:22.83, leaving the Portuguese to settle for bronze.

"It was really hard to run because of the wind. I gave everything and finally got my first gold medal," said Abeylegesse, who has won Olympic and world silver medals and who took the 5,000 bronze at the 2006 Europeans.

Latvian Ineta Radevica was so happy she wanted to dance after upsetting the form book to win long jump gold from Portugal's Naide Gomes by virtue of a better second-best distance.

Both athletes leaped 6.92 metres but Radevica's next-best effort was 6.87m compared to 6.68m from Gomez.

"I actually feel like dancing but I have the triple jump qualification tomorrow so I'm going to try and keep my emotions under control," said the 29-year-old Latvian.

Russian Olga Kucherenko, the top-ranked European this year was third with 6.84m and 2006 champion Lyudmila Kolchanova fifth.

Former world and Olympic heptathlon champion Carolina Kluft, who missed 10 months through injury, finished 11th with 6.33m after scraping into the final as the last qualifier.

Libor Charfreitag won the men's hammer with the only throw over 80 metres.

The 32-year-old Slovakian threw 80.02m on his second trip into the circle. Italian Nicola Vizzoni added the European silver to his Olympic one with 79.12m, six centimetres more than Hungary's Krisztian Pars.

Croatia's European junior discus champion Sandra Perkovic grabbed the senior title with her final throw to deny world bronze medallist Nicoleta Grasu victory.

The 38-year-old Romanian had held the lead since an opening effort of 63.48m only for Perkovic to better that with 64.67m.

Olympic and world champion Olga Kaniskina burst into tears after leading a Russian sweep of the medals in the day's opening event, the women's 20-km walk.

Meanwhile, Andy Baddeley looks set to continue Great Britain's distance running revival at the European Championships after cruising into the 1500m final in Barcelona.

Baddeley, 28, had to settle for sixth at the 2006 European Championships in Gothenburg but with two World Championship and one Olympic appearance under his belt since then, the UK champion has blossomed into one of the continent's finest.

He arrived in Barcelona as the number one in Europe and his performance in his heat, where he crossed the line in first place in 3:41.46 minutes, confirmed his status as the one to beat.

And with Mo Farah and Chris Thompson taking 10,000m gold and silver respectively on Tuesday, along with Colin McCourt and Tom Lancashire also reaching the 1500m final - Baddeley is well placed to lead a British medal rush in Friday's final.

Perri Shakes-Drayton stormed into the 400m hurdles final - clocking a new personal best along the way.

The 21-year-old, who clinched gold at the European Under-23 Championships last summer, has been in fine form all season and she is showing no signs of slowing down in Barcelona, after coming home third in her semi-final in 54.73 seconds.

That performance carved nearly 0.20 off her previous personal best, set last month, and she now has two days to rest before she returns to the track.

Martyn Rooney failed to impress but did at least manage to squeeze his way into the 400m final.

Just a few weeks ago, Rooney was the hot favourite for gold having ducked under 45 seconds for the second time this season en route to the UK title in Birmingham.

But the 23-year-old’s world appears to be collapsing around him and a disappointing outing in Gateshead was followed by a solid if unspectacular heat in Barcelona – and now a lacklustre semi-final.

The 2008 Olympic finalist crossed the line in 45.00 seconds and in third place, ensuring an anxious wait to see if he had qualified for the final with Belgium’s world leader Jonathan Borlee bettering his season’s best to take the line honours in 44.71.

Second was 2006 bronze medallist Leslie Djhone in 44.87 while other impressive qualifiers included Ireland’s David Gillick in 44.79 and Britain’s Michael Bingham in 44.88.

Elsewhere, there was bad news for Great Britain’s Lee McConnell in the women’s 400m after the Scot finished fourth in her heat in 53.15 and failed to advance.

The UK champion has clocked 51.55 this season but in a sub-standard field in Barcelona, the former 400m hurdler will still be making an early exit.

More than the Games / Reuters