European Championships: Greg Rutherford retains long jump title as Dina Asher-Smith claims 200m gold

Defending Olympic champion Greg Rutherford stepped up his preparations for next month's Rio Games by retaining his European long jump crown in Amsterdam on Thursday night (7 July). The 29-year-old, also the reigning world and commonwealth champion, produced a leap of 8.25m in the fifth round of the final to leapfrog previous leader Michel Torneus of Sweden by four centimetres.

While some way short of his outdoor personal best of 8.51, claiming gold was nonetheless important to Rutherford as it marked his triumphant comeback from a whiplash injury sustained during a fall at a Diamond League meeting in Birmingham last month.

That injury later forced his withdrawal from the British Championships and left him with serious damage to his inner ear - a condition called cochlear hydrops - which carries a 25% chance of becoming permanent. He also suffered from a bout of appendicitis in April and recently had his sperm frozen as a precaution for participating at the Rio Olympics due to fears over the mosquito-borne Zika virus.

Elsewhere on day two, Dina Asher-Smith became the first British woman in history to win European 200m gold. The domestic record-holder, who finished fifth at the world championships in Beijing last year, dominated the rest of the field and clocked a season's-best time of 22.37secs to cross the line ahead of Bulgaria's 2012 100m champion Ivet Lalova-Collio. Gina Luckenkemper was third.

There was no such success for Richard Kilty, who was disqualified from the men's 100m final for another false start. Churandy Martina took gold with Jak Ali Harvey in second and Jimmy Vicaut third. James Ellington came in fifth. Tiffany Porter was unable to successfully defender her title and had to settle for bronze in the women's 100m hurdles behind Cindy Roleder and Alina Talay.