"What a race! First I thought that we're walkers," said Russia's Ludmila Rogachova, who won the slowest 1,500-final in the European Championship's history Sunday.
Rogachova's time was 4 minutes, 18.93 seconds, the slowest recorded in a final since 1969. Her victory gave Russia 10 golds in addition to eight silvers and seven bronze medals atop the final medal standings. Britain was second at 6-5-2, Germany third at 5-4-5 and France fourth 4-3-2.
The women weren't alone with slow times on the final day of the championships, dominated by Russia.
In the men's 5,000 final, Olympic champion Dieter Baumann's winning time of 13:36.93 was almost 40 seconds off the world record.
Rob Denmark of Britain finished runner-up behind the German in 13:37.50 and Abel Anton of Spain added a bronze medal in 13:38.04.
The women's 1,500 runners looked like they were setting out for a marathon and not the blue-ribbon race. Kelly Holmes of Britain nipped Yekaterina Podkopayeva of Russia just before the finish line to snatch the silver medal in the women's 1,500 in 4:19.30.
Marie-Jose Perec joined Irina Privalova as the only women's double gold medalists by leading France to victory in the 1,600-meter relay.
Perec, winner of the individual 400-meter race, ran the anchor leg in 49.38 for the French which clocked 3:22.34.
"All the girls ran great today," said Perec, who also is the Olympic and world champion at 400 meters. "I only had to keep the other team behind me."
Russia was second in 3:22.34 and Germany third in 3:24.10.
Du'aine Ladejo became the only men's double champion as Britain took the men's 1,600 relay in 2:59.13.
Winner of the individual one-lap race, Ladejo ran the anchor leg for the British team. France was second in 3:01.11 and Russia third in 3:03.10.
The men's 800 also was a slow and tactical race, with Andrea Benvenuti of Italy outkicking Vebjorn Rodal of Norway by .41. Benvenuti's winning time was 1:46.12.
Martin Fiz broke away with a few kilometers left and led Spain to a medal sweep in the men's marathon.
Fiz, who made his marathon debut in the Finnish capital only last year, covered the 42.2-kilometer race in 2:10.31. Diego Garcia finished 15 seconds behind and Alberto Juzdado completed the Spanish sweep in 2:11.18.
The only other medal sweep in these championships came Saturday, when Alexander Klimenko led a Ukrainian 1-2-3 finish in the men's shot put.
Also Saturday, faulty baton changes in the sprint relays stopped Britain's Olympic sprint champion Christie winning a record seventh medal and Privalova of Russia continuing a quest to become the first athlete to win four golds at one European Championship.
Privalova, running the anchor leg for the Russians in the women's 4x100 final, seemed to take off too early as she prepared to receive the baton from Marina Trandenkova. Despite losing vital seconds Privalova ran a brilliant leg but it was not enough to beat the Germans and her team took silver. (AP, Reuters)
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