It was double trouble on day two of the European Junior Championships in Tampere as Sweden earned double gold and three athletes completed one half of a potential golden double.

Decathlete Niklas Wiberg, hurdler/long jumper Sophie Kraul, horizontal jumper Nelson Evora and sprinter Ivet Lalova were four big stars to emerge during an exciting second day of competition at the Tampere Stadium. 

But one other name worthy of a mention is Leon Baptiste, who ensured Great Britain’s proud record in the men’s 100m was extended to nine titles in the last 11 editions of the championship after winning a close fought race in 10.50.

The final was missing Eddy de Lepine, the pre-championship favourite, after the Frenchman’s disqualification from the heats for false starting. But Baptiste kept his cool in the final to win by two-hundredths of a second from Germany’s Till Helmke with Baptiste’s countryman Monu Miah snatching bronze in a personal best 10.54.

Baptiste, who prefers the 200m but was only selected for the 100m, despite winning the national junior titles at both sprints, added of his win: “I cannot believe it, European champion. I felt I could win gold; it was all about self belief. I was really relaxed from 60m. I’m disappointed not to have been picked for the 200m but I’ll channel all my energies into the relay.”

The women’s 100m went the way of highly fancied Ivet Lalova in 11.43 - and the Bulgarian now has designs on the 200m. The silky smooth 19-year-old sprinter, who boasts a personal of 11.14, was never headed and earned Bulgaria a first ever gold in this event.

“Winning was almost easy,” admitted Lalova. I think the 200m, which I’m now concentrating on is much harder for me. I like this fast track.”

In a tight battle for the minor medals, France’s Veronique Mang won silver in 11.56 and bronze went to Great Britain’s Jade Lucas Read in 11.60.

The ‘new Heike Drechsler’ Sophie Krauel completed the first half of a dream double by stamping her class on the field in the 100m Hurdles to blitz to an emphatic victory in a personal best of 13.28.

The 18-year-old German, who hopes to complete double gold in Sunday’s Long Jump final, comes from the same town (Jena) as Drechsler and even attends the same school the German Olympic legend spent her formative years.

Krauel admitted: “The pressure was enormous. Now after this win it’s much easier to concentrate on the long jump on Sunday.”

Behind the German, Great Britain’s Symone Belle bagged silver with a second personal best of the championships (13.53) and Switzerland’s Sabrina Altermatt set a national Swiss record of 13.59 for bronze.

Another first half of a potential double was completed in the men’s Long Jump as Portgual’s new star Nelson Evora secured a narrow 2cm win with a first round jump and new national junior record of 7.83m.

Evora, who placed sixth in last year’s Triple Jump at the World Junior Championships, now looks forward to tackling his speciality discipline on Sunday with renewed confidence after taking victory in his first major international Long Jump competition.

The Ivory Coast-born athlete, who moved to live in the Portuguese capital of Lisbon when he was four, said of winning long jump gold: “A gold medal and a new national record of 7.83m is fantastic at this kind of competition. I may be ready to jump more than eight metres but I do not concentrate on that because my main event is triple jump, which I absolutely want to win on Saturday.”

Germany’s Christian Kaczmarek leapt to a personal best of 7.81m in round four to come agonisingly close to gold but he had to settle for silver with his countryman Tim Riedal in bronze with 7.65m. Great Britain’s highly rated Jonathan Moore, who was hoping to emulate his father Aston as a European junior champion (he won triple jump gold in 1975) committed three fouls and was eliminated from the competition.

Italy’s Silvia La Barbera pulled off a surprise 5000m gold medal in a high class race, which saw the top four athletes all claim big personal bests. La Barbera benefited from a cautious approach after Latvian Inna Poluskina went off at a lightning quick early pace which saw her run a 68 second first lap and pass two kilometres in 6:05.01. Britain’s European junior cross country champion Charlotte Dale set off in pursuit of the Latvian but by halfway it was the smooth-striding Italian, who was making headway.

La Barbera, who comes from Altofonte, the same Sicilian town as 1990 European 5000m and 10,000m champion Salvatore Antibo, eased past Dale between 3km-4km before finally moving to the front in the final kilometre to deservedly win in a new Italian national junior record of 15:52.20 more than half-a-minute from her previous best of 16:29.12.

Poluskina hung on for silver in 15:55.69 and Dale for bronze in 16:07.26.  

Sweden’s joyous day was complete when Nicklas Wiberg produced a scintillating 1500m to take a stunning decathlon victory after shot-putter Magnus Lohse secured their first gold medal earlier in the evening session.

Wiberg’s success was an improbable achievement as he went into the ninth and penultimate discipline in ninth place following a disappointing 4.00m pole vault.

A mighty 65.38m javelin hauled the Swede up into bronze medal position but he still faced a difficult task to claim gold, as he was 123pts behind the leader Russian Alexey Sysoev going into the gruelling 1500m.

Cheered on by vociferous Swedish support, Wiberg ran an inspired 4:14.38 to pick up 850pts for a total of 7604pts which was enough to secure the overall triumph from Sysoev who accumulated only 654pts with 4:44.27 for a final total of 7531.

German Steffen Willwacher leapfrogged into bronze with a 4:25.54 (7497) and so relegating Poland’s Robert Gindera (7490) to fourth – he had stood in the silver medal position going into the final event.

Wiberg, who improved on his previous personal best by 244pts during an exhilarating competition, said: “Although I won it was not perfect. I expected more especially in the pole vault. There is a multi-events boom in Sweden thanks to Carolina Kluft (the European senior and world junior heptathlon champion).”

Magnus Lohse earned the Scandinavian nation their first gold of the night to win a close fought men’s shot put by 18cms with a fifth round throw of 20.28m.

The 18-year-old gold medal winner tied with Russia’s Anton Lyuboslavskiy after round one as the pair both threw 20.08m. In round two the Russian inched ahead by 2cms before the Swede, who is attending the University of Colorado in the United States in the autumn, snatched the lead back with 20.13m in round four before securing gold with his next throw. Georgi Ivanov picked by Bulgaria’s second medal of the night with a bronze (19.94m).

Ulrike Giesa helped Germany to a one-two in the women’s discus with a second round throw of 53.75m good enough to win from Nadine Muller (53.44). Russia’s Darya Pishchalnikova won bronze with 52.39m.

Steve Landells for the IAAF