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dpaMunich Olympic champion Marcell Jacobs of Italy returned from injury to claim the men’s European 100 metres title while the women’s race saw a sensational upset win from Gina Lückenkemper in front of an ecstatic Munich home crowd.Jacobs got gold in 9.95 seconds as he beat British title holder Zharnel Hughes by four-hundredths of a second. The bronze also went to Britain in the form of Jeremiah Azu who clocked a personal best 10.13.Jacobs is the second Italian to win the continental title in the blue-riband sprint, the other being Pietro Mennea in 1978.Jacobs won a surprise 100m gold and 4x100m gold at last year’s Tokyo Olympics and in March added the world indoor 60m title.He retired after the 100m heats with injury at last month’s world championships in Eugene, Oregon, but was fit in time to compete in Munich.“This was a difficult season with problems, with injury. But my leg is good not. I am not happy about how the race went technically, there were some problems,” Jacobs said.But he added: “I am over the moon with the gold medal. After Olympic gold, now I got the European gold.” The 2018 silver medallist Lückenkemper then came from behind to edge Swiss Mujinga Kambundji by five-thousandths of a second with both timed on 10.99 seconds in a photo-finish.Briton Daryll Neita was only another one-hundredth back for bronze while compatriot title holder Dina Asher-Smith pulled up early in the final, telling the BBC later she cramped in both calves.Lückenkemper’s celebrations in front of some 40,000 fans over Germany’s first sprint win since Katrin Krabbe in 1990 were delayed because she required treatment for a cut in her left knee, caused by her spikes.“It will take a while to sink in,” Lückenkemper told broadcasters ARD, admitting she had major hamstring problems after the semi-finals. “The atmosphere really pushed me. I had a lot of fun.” There was more German joy when 2019 world champion Niklas Kaul staged a remarkable comeback in the last two events to get decathlon gold.Kaul made up a 520-point deficit on Switzerland’s Simon Ehammer in his final two pet events, a monster 76.05m javelin throw and then a personal best 4:10.06 minutes in the concluding 1,500m with which he handily got the required 27-second advantage over Ehammer he needed to win - finishing a staggering 38 seconds ahead of him.Elsewhere Norwegian world champion Jakob Ingebrigtsen defended his 5,000m title in stage one of his bid for a 1,500m/5,000m double repeat, Serbia’s Sandra Perkovic overcame a big scare from Germany’s Kristin Pudenz to get an unprecedented sixth straight women’s discus gold, and Olympic champion Miltiadis Tentoglou of Greece won back-to-back long jump gold with a championship record 8.52m.“It was amazing here today, it was a great race to be a part of. It feels great to be back and win, it is special. I am in the next race on Thursday [the 1,500m final] so I am looking forward to it. I always have got something to prove,” Ingebrigtsen said.The first medal events of the day were decided in the 35-kilometres race walk which has replaced the 50km, with former 20km world and European champion Miguel Angel Lopez of Spain winng the men’s race and 38-year-old Greek Antigoni Ntrismpioti the women’s event.
