Machado, 35, the defending champion eclipsed and old championship record of 2:28:38 set in 1986 for fellow Portuguese Rosa Mota. Russia's Madina Biktagirova and Italian Marua Viceconte followed her.

Yesterday, Heike Drechsler became only the third to win four consecutive titles in the same event, taking the long jump in 7.16 metres. She edged out '96 Olympic silver medalist Fiona May (7.11) of Italy and world champion Luydmila Galkina (7.06) of Russia.

Britain's Colin Jackson also won his third consecutive European gold, clocking 13.02. in the 110 hurdles.

Now, Britain leads with six gold medals and 11 overall. Russia has five gold and 17 overall and Germany has won four gold and a total of 16.

Britain's Denise Lewis, world silver medalist, won the heptathlon with 6,559 points. Britain's 4x100 men also got gold in38.52 as 100-metre champion Darren Campbell and 200 champion Doug Walker picked up their second gold.European 100m champion Christine Arron of France got gold in the 4x100 and blew by Russian anchor Irina Privalova -- the 200 gold-medalist -- to victory. France clocked 42.59.

In the pole vault, Russian Maksim Tarasov added a European gold to '92 his Olympic gold with a jump of 5.81.

The men's marathon was 1-2-3 for Italy with Stefano Baldini clocking 2:12:01 followed by Danilo Goffiand Vincenzo Modica Spaniards took the next three places.