Baldini, who was running stride for stride with fellow Italian Danilo Goffi at the 40-km mark, pulled away before entering the Nep Stadium and won in two hours, 12 minutes, one second.

Goffi was second in 2:12.11, and another Italian, Vincenzo Modica, took the bronze in 2:12.53.

Iwan Thomas completed a British sweep of the men's sprints when he won the 400 metres yesterday in 44.52 seconds, a championship record.

Minutes earlier, Doug Walker led a 1-2-3 British triumph in the 200m. Britain also had had a gold-silver sweep in the 100m on Wednesday.

Poland and Germany also won two gold each to pull level with Britain and Ukraine on three gold through four days of competition. Russia lead the medal table with four gold and 13 overall.

Irina Privalova of Russia won a Slavic battle in the 200m, surging ahead in the last 30 metres tobeat Zhanna Pintusevich of Ukraine, the world champion.``This is amazing,'' Privalova said after retaining one of her two titles. She lost the 100m to Christine Arron of France.

Privalova, coming off major leg injuries and surgery, clocked 22.62 seconds. Pintusevich took the silver at 22.74, while Melanie Paschke of Germany snatched the bronze in 22.78.

Grit Breuer of Germany won her first major individual gold medal since coming back from a doping ban when she captured the women's 400 metres in 49.93.

Artur Partyka of Poland, who has had silver at the Olympics, World and European Championships, finally captured his first gold by clearing 2.34 metres in the men's high jump.

His compatriot Robert Korzeniowski won the men's 50-km walk to add the European to his Olympic and World titles.