Jenny Meadows (l) en route to her 800m victory in Annecy (© Getty Images)
Great Britain, bidding for their first title since 2000, lead the men's competition by a slender three points at the end of the first day while the Russian women have a more commanding 13-point advantage in their attempt to continue their unbeaten streak which stretches back to 1997.
British track triumphs compensate for field failures - Men's competition
Great Britain notched up four victories on the track to take their tally to 55 points at the halfway point in the men's competition. Poland and France are second and third respectively, with both teams on 52 points but split by the number of second place finishes and, after several field events where the British representatives performed below-par ,the contest is still wide open.
Poland were the leaders for the first three events, with Hammer Thrower Szymon Ziolkowski winning the first event of the Cup for the fifth year in succession.
The 2000 Olympic champion produced 79.26m with his final effort. "Almost as important as the win was as to make the Olympic standard decided by my federation, that's 78,50m, so it's done. I am now sure to go to Beijing for my fourth Olympics. Technically, my best throw was actually my third one but it touched the net and was ruled a foul," explained Ziolkowski
However, the momentum started to turn in Britain's favour four events into the afternoon when Tyrone Edgar won the 100m in 10.20.
"It's an Olympic year and 2008 is going to be my year. I had it in my mind, seven people weren't going to win and I didn’t want to be one of them,” said the determined Edgar.
Martyn Rooney, the fastest European over 400m this year, then added to Britain's points with a tenacious win in the 400m, the 21-year-old south Londoner coming from behind with 60m to go, and against a headwind down the home straight, to go to win in 45.33.
Farah to the fore
France though, with more consistency in the field events, held the lead until the penultimate event and despite a gutsy win in the 5,000m by Britain's Mohammed Farah, with the thermometer going over 30 degrees.
Farah took off with five laps to go to win in 13:44.07 with Spain 's Carles Castillejo trudging home in second place nearly the length of the home straight behind the former European cross country champion.
Watching Farah win courageously from the front was motivation enough for the British 4x100m relay team to avoid any of the calamities that have plagued their sprint quartets over the years.
Germany were delighted to cross the line first in the final event of day one but the smiles were quickly wiped off their faces when it was adjudged that they had performed an illegal baton change and instead it was the British quartet that took the honours and eight points.
Christian Malcolm, Edgar, Marlon Devonish and Rikki Clifton were racing together as a quartet for the first time but put together some cautiously fluent exchanges to win 38.48.
In a team competition the focus is supposed to be teams rather than individuals but perhaps the best men's performances came not from the British runners but in the jumps.
Good jumping from Silnov and Tsátoumas
Russia's Andrey Silnov was the star performer in the High Jump with a flawless record up to and including his winning height of 2.32m, which equalled the best mark by a European this year, before he brought the bar down three times at 2.36m.
"It's a great stadium, it was excellent conditions apart from the fact that it was just a little too hot," commented the blond-haired and pale skinned Silnov, although he was clearly not suffering too much despite the intense glare of the sun.
Greece's Loúis Tsátoumas, who is probably more comfortable in such conditions than Silnov, tops this year's European Long Jump rankings with the 8.32m he jumped at last weekend's Greek Championships and proved once again that when he's healthy he can be a contender for medals at major championships with an impressive winning leap of 8.17m with his third attempt and into a gentle breeze of 0.6mps.
Russian consistency the key – women’s competition
Like the British men, Russia's women won four events on the opening day but their consistency in every area was the key to them running up a total of 71 points, 13 clear of their neighbours Ukraine.
With no Yelena Isinbayeva or Svetlana Feofanova present in Annecy, Yuliya Golubchikova had the honour of representing Russian interests in the Pole Vault and the Muscovite literally and metaphorically rose to the occasion with a personal best of 4.73m, clearing every height at the first time of asking until she had three failures at 4.80m.
With the conditions so warm, 3000m Steeplechase World record holder Gunnar Galkina decided against front-running heroics, unlike at the IAAF Golden League meeting in Oslo two weeks ago and instead she let others do most of the work at the front on this occasion until she hit the accelerator at the sound of the bell, speeding away to cross the line in a Cup record of 9:35.32.
Russia chose to send 22-year-old Svetlana Saykina to contest the Discus, instead of the current European champion Darya Pischalnikova, but the gamble paid off as she added more than a metre to her personal best to win with her second throw of 62.56m.
Into the bargain, Russia won the 4x100m relay in 42.80, helped by some particularly good running and slick baton changing by Natalya Rushakova and Yuliya Guschina on legs two and three.
Field thrills provided by Saladuha and Shymchuk
Just like in the men's event, arguable the best individual women's mark came in the field with the Ukrainian Triple Jumper Olha Saladuha bounding out to a marginally wind-assisted (+2.2mph) 14.73m with her second attempt.
There was also another national record for Belarus's Natalya Shymchuk to celebrate after she upset the odds in the Javelin by launching her implement out to 63.24m with her fourth and final effort.
The throw produced a huge whoop of delight from the woman in the green-and red strip of her native country after adding nearly a metre to her own national record of 62.38m, set earlier this season.
Another Belarus win came courtesy of reigning Olympic 100m champion Yulia Nesterenko, who is still some way short of the form that took her to the gold medal four years ago in Athens but she showed some glimpses of her class by winning, after a slow start in a season's best of 11.17.
Phil Minshull for the IAAF
