Personal best and gold for Idowu in Barcelona

BRITAIN's Phillips Idowu last night added European gold to his ever-increasing medal collection with a superb performance in Barcelona's Olympic Stadium.

Idowu set a new personal best of 17.81 metres in the triple jump final to beat Romania's Marian Oprea and France's Teddy Tamgho to the title. The 31-year-old Londoner now holds the World, European and Commonwealth titles, with Portugal's Nelson Evora only denying him the Olympic title in Beijing in 2008 by five centimetres.

Idowu led from start to finish with jumps of 17.46m, 17.47m and 17.40m followed by 17.81m in the fourth round, eclipsing his previous personal best of 17.73m set in winning the world title in Berlin last year.

Idowu admitted the Olympics in his home city in 2012 were now foremost in his mind.

"There's one more medal in my career I need to win and that's in a couple of years' time," he said. "I just want to get home to my babies and my family. My job in Barcelona is done. I came here to win the medal, I won the medal and now I want to go home and celebrate with my friends and family and look forward to the end of the season and preparation towards 2012."

Dai Greene and Rhys Williams advanced to the 400m hurdles final and Christian Malcolm and Marlon Devonish reached the 200m final. Mo Farah and Chris Thompson, first and second in the 10,000m on Tuesday, also eased into tomorrow's final of the 5,000m to keep alive their dreams of a long-distance double.

Michael Rimmer also looked a genuine gold medal contender in winning his 800m semi-final, but Laura Turner was unable to reach the 100m final after finishing a disappointing fifth in her semi-final in 11.41s.