Christophe Lemaitre celebrates after winning the 200m final in Barcelona, on Friday

Barcelona: Christophe Lemaitre became the first Frenchman to complete a sprint double at the European championships when he clocked 20.37 to claim victory in the 200metres on Friday.

Britain’s Christian Malcolm was second in 20.38 and France’s Martial Mbandjock finished third to add to his bronze from the 100m.

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

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

Yohann Diniz overcame a fall late in the race to retain his European 50-km walk title and give France their third gold medal of the championships.

Diniz jumped for joy after winning in a time of three hours, 40 minutes 37 seconds, the best in Europe this year. Poland’s Grzegorz Sudol was second, 1:47 behind and Russian Sergey Bakulin third.

Olympic champion Alex Schwazer, who was second in Tuesday’s 20km walk, pulled out towards the end of the race holding his right hamstring.

The 32-year-old Diniz took the lead on the first lap of the one-km circuit on Barcelona’s streets, on a muggy, overcast morning, and remained untroubled by anyone else for the rest of the race.

Norway’s world, Olympic and European champion Andreas Thorkildsen had a scare in javelin qualifying with two no throws before managing 78.82 metres on his final attempt to go through to Saturday’s final with the sixth-best distance.

Finland’s Tero Pitkamaki, second to Thorkildsen in Gothenburg four years ago, comfortably surpassed the automatic qualifying distance of 81metres with 83.15 on his second throw.

World high jump champion Blanka Vlasic cleared the qualifying height of 1.92 on her first attempt to book a place in Sunday’s final. (Reuters)