Hession sixth as Lemaitre completes double

A thrilling finish to the men's 200m final at the European Athletics Championships saw Christophe Lemaitre edge out Britain's Christian Malcolm for gold, with Paul Hession finishing sixth.

Hession's time was 20.71, slightly slower than he ran in his heats. The Athenry sprinter briefly looked as though he was in the shakeup for a medal, and was close to the lead as the field emerged from the bend.

But he was overhauled by the field down the home straight, with Lemaitre finishing like a train.

Lemaitre became the first Frenchman to complete a sprint double at the European championships, clocking 20.37. Malcolm's time was 20.38 and France's Martial Mbandjock finished third to add to his bronze from the 100.

Lemaitre, 20, had complained of tiredness in the 200 heats following his victory in Tuesday's 100 final and was out of the medal positions as the runners entered the straight.

But he somehow found another gear in the last 30 metres and just overhauled Malcolm with a desperate lunge at the line.

Derval O'Rourke won her 100m hurdles heat at the European Athletics Championships to reach the semi-finals; while Niamh Whelan failed to reach the final of the women's 200m.

Robert Heffernan finished fourth in the 50km walk, while Deirdre Ryan failed to make the women's high jump final.

For O'Rourke and Heffernan interviews click here.

O'Rourke, running in heat three, clocked a time of 12.88 seconds to reach the 100m hurdles semi-final. That time was a season best for O'Rourke.

The Irishwoman was fast out of the blocks and put daylight between her and her rivals in the last 20 metres.

O'Rourke's time was the third fastest of the heats. Christina Vukicevic of Norway posted the fastest qualifying time of 12.83 seconds.

The semi-finals of the event take place at 6.05pm (Irish time) on Saturday.

(Watch an interview with Derval O'Rourke following her 100m hurdles round 1 success.)

Niamh Whelan was placed sixth in first of the women's 200m semi-finals. She ran a time of 23.31. She qualified outside the three automatic qualification spot, but scraped scraped in as the slowest of the four fastest losers with a time of 23.78 seconds.

Deirdre Ryan has failed in her attempt to reach the women's high jump final. Ryan finished ninth in the women's qualifying group B; that was three places out of the qualification spots for the final.

Ryan's jump of 1.90m was just short of the 1.92m needed to make the final. Despite not making it out of the group, the distance was her season best jump.

Corkonian Robert Heffernan set a new 50km walk national record as he finished fourth for the second time in four days.

Heffernan narrowly missed out on a medal on the opening day of competition on Tuesday, finishing fourth in the 20km walk, just 11 seconds behind bronze medallist Joao Vieira of Portugal.

And the 32-year-old from Cork was also fourth in the 50km event this morning, although this time two minutes four seconds behind bronze medal winner Sergey Bakulin of Russia in three hours, 45 minutes 30 seconds.

France's Yohann Diniz took gold in a time of 3:40.37, with Poland's Grzegorz Sudol claiming silver in 3:42.24 and Bakulin a further 62 seconds adrift.

Fionnuala Britton finished 11th in the final of the 3000m in a time of 9.44.25. The race was won by Yuliya Zarudneva with a time of 9:17.57 and she just held off Marta Dominguez (9.17.44) for the gold medal.

(Watch an interview with Rob Heffernan following his fourth-place finish in the 50km walk here.)

IRISH IN ACTION TODAY (all times Irish). *

Morning session:
6.35 Men's 50km walk final: Robert Heffernan.
9.00 Women's 100m hurdles heats: Derval O'Rourke (ht 3, 9.16).
9.05 Women's high jump qualifying: Deirdre Ryan (Group B).
11.20 Women's 200m heats: Niamh Whelan (ht 1, 11.20).

Afternoon session:
18.00 Women's 200m semi-finals: Niamh Whelan.
18.25 Men's 200m final: Paul Hession.
19.25 Women's steeplechase final: Fionnuala Britton.
20.25 Men's 400m final: David Gillick.

*Italics indicate event has been completed.