31st European Indoor Championships, Palais Omnisports de Paris Bercy

Silver medal for Dwain Chambers Full results

Day 3. At last Dwain Chambers seemed "switched on" in defence of his European Indoor Championship 60 metres title. Strongly away he took a metre out of Lemaitre and at 40 metres was ahead of the field ... and holding it ... but what was this? A flash of green far to his left as the finish neared ... and it was the old campaigner Francis Obikwelu carrying his Portugese colours through the line for the win as Dwain prematurely dipped. There was just 1/100th of a second between them - 6.53 to 6.54. Lemaitre took the bronze medal in 6.58.

Day 2. After a sluggish start Dwain Chambers looked far from convincing in the first round of the 60 metres sprint, placing 3rd in his heat with 6.71, but nevertheless progressed to the semi-final stage. An improvement here saw him win his race in 6.61 seconds but it was very close with Martial Mbandjock of France given the same time. Francis Obikwelu of Portugal was also timed at 6.61 in winning the third semi but one has to say that Frenchman Christophe Lemaitre, winner of semi two with an electrifying last 30 metres to set a lifetime best of 6.55, looked the most outstanding sprinter on display.

Day 1. A late selection for the Irish team, Dan Mulhare was unable to achieve his target of a place in the final and maybe a sub-8 minute time for 3,000 metres. It's always a difficult in the heats of these competitions where nobody wants to totally commit themselves for fear of overdoing it in the early rounds. Dan himself took up the running in the second kilometre in an attempt to keep to an honest pace throughout and maybe go through as a fastest loser but with a few laps to go he was at the back of the leading bunch and lost a little ground as the inevitable acceleration kicked in. Nevertheless, he placed 6th in with 8:04.57, the first four finishing in a tight bunch in the 8:01s. He was 15th fastest of the 26 entrants.

"It was my 5th 3km in 20 days, and afterwards I was completely wrecked. Initially I was very very disappointed but looking back at it now, I still preformed close to my best, I came into the race as a complete underdog and gave a decent account of myself, albeit not what I wanted, it wasn't a disaster.

Men. 60m: c 2 D Chambers 6.54 (b 1s1 6.61, 3h5 6.71). 3000m: a 6h3 D Mulhare 8:04.57.

Restored from the club's earlier website, belgraveharriers.com, and published here as originally written.