GOTEBORG, Sweden -- France's Antoinette Nana Djimou Ida successfully defended her European indoor pentathlon title Friday, edging Yana Maksimava of Belarus by eight points.
Nana Djimou took the lead after the opening 60-meter hurdles, but Maksimava gained ground in the high jump, long jump and shot put on the opening day of the European Indoor Championships.
In the final 800-meter race, Maksimava finished more than two seconds in front of second-place Hanna Melnychenko of Ukraine. Nana Djimou started strong, but fell back to fifth place by the middle of the race and ended nearly six seconds off the pace.
But the final tally gave Nana Djimou 4,666 points and Maksimava 4,658. Melnychenko took the bronze.
Nevin Yanit of Turkey, a two-time European champion in the 100 hurdles, won the 60 meters at Goteborg's Scandinavium arena. A push at the end left her 0.05 seconds ahead of Belarus' Alina Talay. Italy's Veronica Borsi was third in a photo finish with Talay.
"I'm speechless," Yanit said. "I'm very happy."
In the men's 60 hurdles, Russia's Sergey Shubenkov won by an even narrower margin. His 7.49-second run was 0.02 seconds better than that of Paolo Dal Molin of Spain.
"It is one of the happiest times in my athletic career," Shubenkov said. "I am the luckiest man in the world just now."
Dal Molin said he "made some big mistakes in this final, but I am still really happy about my medal."
Pascal Martinot Lagarde of France was third but displeased with his run. But, he added, "a medal is a medal."
In the men's shot put, Serbia's Asmir Kolasinac threw a season's best 67 feet, 8 inches to win the gold. Eleven inches behind was silver medalist Hamza Alic of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The Czech Republic's Ladislav Prasil won the bronze and previous champion Ralf Bartels of Germany finished fourth.
