(CNN) -- Long-distance runner Mo Farah claimed a historic 10,000-meter gold for Britain in the final event of the opening day of the European Athletics Championships in Barcelona.
Farah led home teammate Chris Thompson for an emphatic victory on Tuesday night as Britain won its first European medals in the event since 1974, triumphing for the first time.
The 27-year-old made up for the disappointment of four years ago, when he was edged into second place in the 5,000m by just nine hundredths of a second.
Farah won in a time of 28 minutes 24.99 seconds, some way short of his Europe-leading 27:28.86 set last month.
Thompson fought off Italy's Daniele Meucci on the line, with both runners given a time of 28:27.33.
Russian teenager Stanislav Emelyanov won the opening gold medal of the event with a shock victory in the men's 20-kilometer walk.
The 19-year-old, who won the European junior 10km track walk title last year, overhauled Italy's Alex Schwazer to win in a time of one hour, 20.10 seconds.
He was 28 seconds ahead of Olympic 50km champion Schwazer, who finished 11 seconds in front of Portugal's bronze medallist Joao Vieira.
Schwazer had set the world's fastest time of 1:18:24 in Switzerland in March.
Vieira, who was 10th at the world championships last year, matched his third-placing from the 2006 European event.
CNN
