(Reuters) Luis Leon Sanchez Gil won gold for Spain in the men’s road race at the Baku 2015 European Games on Sunday (June 21) in a time of five hours, 27 minutes and 25 seconds as Andriy Grivko secured silver for Ukraine and Czech Republic’s Petr Vakoc took bronze.
The climax came of the race happened as Sanchez Gil joined a final lap breakaway that denied the sprinters the mass finish they were hoping for.
The Spaniard crossed the line to take gold just ahead of his Astana team-mate Grivko and Vakoc who won and silver and bronze respectively.
Spain’s Jesus Herrada Lopez was leading the breakaway group right until the final corner and had to settle for fourth after being overtaken by Sanchez
who also won bronze in the time trial on Thursday (June 18).
Russia’s Yana Kudryavtseva left all rivals in her gold dust as she won three rhythmic gymnastics titles in the apparatus finals.
The 17-year-old collected gold in individual ball final with 18.950 points, leaving Ganna Rizatdinova of Ukraine with silver and Melitina Staniouta of Belarus with bronze.
Kudryavtseva also won gold in the clubs with 19.200 points and in the ribbon with 19.000.
In acrobatic gymnastics, Belgium swept all the three gold medals at stake with their trio Julie van Gelder, Ineke van Schoor and Kaat Dumarey adding the dynamic and balance titles to their all-around gold medal won on Friday (June 19).
The Belgians delivered some intricate moves, scoring the best total of 28.700 points, leaving Russia second on 28.550 and Belarus third on 28.510.
Great Britain won the final two gold medals in diving as Katherine Torrance overcame Russian rivals to take gold in the 3-metre platform.
The 16 year-old survived the challenge from silver medallist Russian Ekaterina Nekrasova, with Germany’s Saskia Oettinghaus claiming bronze.
Torrance totalled 448.25 points to Nekrasova’s 443.05 while Oettinghaus scored 418.35.
Matthew Lee took Great Britain medal tally to five after winning the men’s 10-metre platform title, keeping his nerve to edge out Russia’s Nikita Shleikher, the one-metre springboard champion, in a fitting climax to the competition.
Lee finished on 588.25 points, with Shleikher on 556.55 and France’s Alexis Jandard taking bronze with 526.20.
Serbia secured men’s water polo gold medal after defeating Spain 8-7 in a close contested final.
No side led by more than a single goal until Serbia’s Jasmin Kolasinac squeezed in a shot at the front post for an 8-6 lead with less than four minutes.
Alvaro Granados Ortega gave Spain some hope closing the gap to just one goal but they ran out of time as Serbia celebrated in style with coach coach Zoran Milenkovic joining the party in the pool.
Spain had beaten Serbia 9-8 in the group stage of the competition, but could not repeat that success to secure gold. Greece also avenged a group round defeat by overcoming Croatia 11-10 to claim the bronze medal.
Valerian Sauveplane earned the first gold for France in the Games a place at the Rio 2016 Olympics by taking the title in the men’s shooting 50-metre rifle final.
He beat Peter Corsa of Croatia in the final while Vitali Bubnovihch claimed bronze for Belarus
