THE Spanish Armada sank the European Athletics Championship marathon

hopes of England's Richard Nerurkar with a unique plundering of the

medals here yesterday.

Headed by a Basque, Martin Fiz, they swept the first three places, a

result never before achieved by any nation in a major championship --

Spanish revenge for Nerurkar's World Cup win over them on home soil in

San Sebastian last year.

And even if it was the ikurrina, the Basque banner, which they paraded

around the Olympic arena, this result set the seal on the Spanish men's

distance treasure chest: bronze at 800 metres, gold and silver at 1500,

silver at 5000, and gold at 10,000.

But the main Spanish pillaging was in the marathon. Fiz finished in

2hr 10min.31sec., a championship record, 15 seconds clear of Diego

Garcia, with Alberto Juzdado third in 2-11-18.

Garcia and Juzdado had been among Nerurkar's World Cup victims in

October, and showed their apprehension, constantly glancing back at him.

And their relentless inquisition broke the Englishman as the tempo wound

up over the final six miles, and he finished fourth in 2-11-56.

Nerurkar shadowed the leaders, staying off the pace by between seven

and 10 seconds, better, he said, to lift his drinks and sponges

unimpeded.

Despite having begun in 70-degree heat and 80% humidity, Nerurkar had

no problems as the field reached half distance in 66-08. The 5000m

splits were 15-46, 15-47, 15-41, 15-29, but then the tempo increased

again, to 15-24, and the lead group dwindled to three. Nerurkar was

alone in fourth, six seconds adrift. ''Where I wanted to be,'' he.

But then Fiz lit the touch paper, aided by his team-mates: 15-13 to 30

kilometres, with Nerurkar still clinging tenaciously adrift by that six

seconds.

The next 5000m, in 15-09, dropped him 24 seconds behind. ''I still

thought at that stage that one of them might blow up, and I could get a

medal,'' said Nerurkar, ''but they ran a good race -- they were the

stronger.'' Fiz covered the last 5000m in 15-20.

Iberian domination continued through the championships in the women's

endurance events, with Fernando Ribiero and Conceicao Ferreira adding

gold and silver in Saturday's 10,000m to their marathon gold won on the

opening day.

Ribiero's winning time, 31-08.75, was just 11 seconds outside the best

time of the absent double Commonwealth champion, Liz McColgan, but the

Portuguese's second-half kilometre splits (3-04, 3-02,

3-01, 3-07, and 3-02), after a modest 15-48.79 at half distance, would

surely have troubled the Scot, even fully fit. Vast government

investment is responsible for the Spanish and Portuguese advances.

Linford Christie was denied a further gold when the sprint relay sqaud

failed to get the baton around in the heats. Darren Braithwaite's

pathetic juggling attempt left Christie fuming.

And Christie was even less happy to learn of condemnation of his

actions last week by the UK's most powerful figure in the sport, British

Athletics Federation executive chairman Peter Radford.

He expressed his disapproval at Christie running onto the field to

talk to high-jumper Dalton Grant during competition, and to the T-shirt

he wore after his 100m victory.

''That T-shirt was clearly ill-advised,'' said Radford. ''He should

not have done it. We would not want to see an exercise like that

repeated.'' These actions would have brought the UK team captain a fine

under a new code of conduct soon likely to be imposed.

Mike Whittingham, coach to Roger Black, has been asked by Radford to

investigate a more structured support system for competitors. This could

lead to contracts after the style of Spain, Portugal, and most other

European nations.

This could include contracts for athletes, paid to run a certain

number of championship and international meetings, but also a code of

conduct.

''I would want to know athletes' plans for each year,'' said Radford,

''and that they were aiming at a particular competition -- not just

competing their legs off.''

He added that the rules regarding betting -- one was placed on himself

by 400m winner Du'aine Ladejo -- would be looked at.

Final

Helsinki

details

SATURDAY

Men. 50km walk -- 1, V Spitsyn (Rus) 3hr 41min.7sec; 2, T Toutain

(Fra) 3-43.52; 3, G Perricelli (Italy) 3-43.55; 4, J-A Garcia (Spain)

3-45.25; 5, R Korzeniowski (Pol)

3-45.57; 6, G Skurygin (Rus) 3-46.30; 7, V Kononen (Fin) 3-47.14; 8, A

Plotnikov (Rus) 3-47.43; 9, P Blazek (Slovakia) 3-49.44; 10, A Noack

(Ger) 3-50-32.

Decathlon -- 1, A Blondel (Fra) 8453pts; 2, H Dagard (Swe) 8362; 3, L

Lobodin (Ukr) 8201; 4, C Plaziat (Fra) 8127; 5, S Schmid (Ger) 8109; 6,

S Munkacsi (Hun) 8071; 7, T Dvorak (Czech) 8065; 8, D Szabo (Hun) 7995;

9, V Kolpakov (Ukr) 7987; 10, E Nool (Est) 7953.

Shot -- 1, A Klimenko (Ukr) 20.78m; 2, A Bagach (Ukr) 20.34; 3, R

Virastyuk (Ukr) 19.59; 4, M Halvari (Fin) 19.52; 5, M Koistinen (Fin)

19.51; 6, D Peric (Yug) 19.40; 7, P Gudmundsson (Ice) 19.34; 8, P Dal

Soglio (Italy) 19.15; 9, T Herbrand (Ger) 19.10; 10, S Kleiza (Lith)

18.80.

Triple jump -- 1, D Kapustin (Rus) 17.62m; 2, S Helan (Fra) 17.55; 3,

M Bruziks (Latvia) 17.20; 4, V Sokov (Rus) 16.97; 5, G Markov (Rus)

16.89; 6, J Edwards (GB) 16.85; 7, G Sainte-Rose (Fra) 16.59; 8, A

Raizgys (Lith) 16.59; 9, J Golley (GB) 16.35; 10, M Mikulas (Cze) 16.29.

0 4x100m -- 1, France (H Lomba, D Sangouma, J-C Trouabal, E Perrot)

38.57sec; 2, Ukraine (S Osovich, D Vanyaikin, O Kramarenko, V Dologodin)

38.98; 3, Italy (E Madonia, D Nettis, G Marras, S Floris) 38.99; 4,

Sweden (P Karlsson, M Ghansah, L Hedner, T Eriksson) 39.05.

Women. 4x100m -- 1, Germany (M Paschke, B Zipp, S Knoll, S

Lichtenhagen) 42.90; 2, Russia (N Anisimova, G Malchugina, M

Trandenkova, I Privalova) 42.96; 3, Bulgaria (D Dimitrova, A Nuneva, S

Dimitrova, P Pendareva) 43.00; 4, Ukraine (A Slyusar, V Fomenko, I

Slyusar, Z Tarnopolskaya) 43.61; 5, Gt Britain (S Douglas, K Merry, S

Jacobs, P Thomas) 43.63; 6, Holland (C Elissen, J Poelman, K De Lange, M

Bogaards) 43.81; 7, Finland (A Pirttimaa, T Leveelahti, S Hernesniemi, M

Salmela) 43.96.

10,000m -- 1, F Ribeiro (Por) 31min.08.75sec; 2, C Ferreira (Por)

31-32.82; 3, D Nauer (Swi) 31-35.96; 4, K Wessel (Ger) 31-38.75; 5, C

Misaros (Rom) 31-41.03; 6, M Guida (Italy) 31-42.14; 7, F Marques (Por)

31-53.12; 8, K Kashapova (Rus) 31-55.99; 9, C Lokar (Ger) 32-08.74; 10,

M Renders (Bel) 32-11.18. Did not finish -- C McKiernan (Ire).

YESTERDAY

Men. Marathon -- 1, M Fiz (Spain) 2hr 10min.31sec; 2, D Garcia (Spain)

2-10.46; 3, A Juzdado (Spain) 2-11.18; 4, R Nerurkar (GB) 2-11.56; 5, L

Di Lello (Italy) 2-12.41; 6, A Rodrigues (Por) 2-12.43; 7, M Matias

(Por) 2-12.48; 8, H Hanninen (Fin) 2-13.21; 9, A Pinto (Por) 2-13.24;

10, D Chauvelier (Fra) 2-13.30; 11, N Sobhi (Fra) 2-13.43; 12, O

Strizhakov (Rus) 2-14.23, 13, J Huruk (Pol) 2-14.27; 14, K Dobler (Ger)

2-14.28; 15, K Stenzel (Ger) 2-14.34; 16, B Devic (Yugo) 2-14.41; 17, G

Gajdus (Pol) 2-14.55; 18, B Le Stum (Fra) 2-14.57; 19, R Wachenbrunner

(Ger) 2-15.11; 20, Y Tolstikov (Rus) 2-15.32; 21, J-L Assemat (Fra)

2-15.36; 22, D Kremer (Isr) 2-15.45; 23, J Silva (Por) 2-16.04; 24, T

Naess (Nor) 2-16.10; 25, R Alliegro (Italy) 2-16.16; 26, V Bukhanov

(Ukr) 2-16.34; 27, P Whitehead (GB) 2-16.40; 28, M Ten Kate (Hol)

2-16.48; 29, L Andervang (Swe) 2-16.59; 30, W Durbano (Italy) 2-17.09;

31, W Foster (GB) 2-17.12; 32, A Pena (Spain) 2-17.19; 33, E

Tukhbatullin (Rus) 2-17.26; 34, W Perszke (Pol) 2-17.35; 35, C Eich

(Ger) 2-17.54; 36, B Leger (Fra) 2-18.33.

5000m -- 1, D Baumann (Ger) 13min.36.93sec; 2, R Denmark (GB)

13-37.50; 3, A Anton (Spain) 13-38.04; 4, A Behar (Fra) 13-38.36; 5, J

Nuttall (GB) 13-38.65; 6, J C Adan (Spain) 13-39.16; 7, R Ulmala (Fin)

13-40.84; 8, A Jimenez (Spain) 13-41.60; 9, D Castro (Por) 13-42.09; 10,

S Franke (Ger) 13-45.67.

4 x 400m final -- Britain 2-59.13; 2, France 3-01.11; 3, Russia

3-03.10; 4, Italy 3-03.46; 5, Germany 3-04.15; 6, Poland 3-04.22; 7,

Finland 3-04.55.

800m -- 1, A Benvenuti (Italy) 1min.46.12sec; 2, V Rodal (Nor)

1-46.53; 3, T De Teresa (Spain) 1-46.57; 4, N Motchebon (Ger) 1-46.65;

5, G D'Urso (Italy) 1-46.90; 6, C Winrow (GB) 1-47.09; 7, J Cerezo

(Spain) 1-47.58; 8, A Douglas (Nor) 1-47.90.

Discus -- V Dubrovshchik (Belarus) 64.78m; 2, D Shevchenko (Rus)

64.56; 3, J Schult (Ger) 64.18; 4, N Sweeney (Ire) 63.76; 5, A Horvath

(Hun) 63.60; 6, V Zinchenko (Ukr) 63.60; 7, S-I Valvik (Nor) 62.02; 8, C

Grasu (Rom) 61.40; 9, S Lyakhov (Rus) 60.80; 10, A Seelig (Ger) 59.26;

11, S Lukashok (Isr) 57.60. Did not start -- L Riedel (Ger).

Women. 1500m -- 1, L Rogachova (Rus) 4-18.93; 2, K Holmes (GB)

4-19.30; 3, Y Podkopayeva (Rus) 4-19.37; 4, M Zuniga (Spain) 4-19.77; 5,

L Kremlyova (Rus) 4-19.77; 6, M Rydz (Pol) 4-19.80; 7, C Sacramento

(Por) 4-20.62; 8, E Kiessling (Ger) 4-20.79; 9, A Brzezinska (Pol)

4-20.89; 10, M Akraka (Swe) 4-21.83; 11, B Bitzner (Fra) 4-22.64; 12, G

Nolan (Ire) 4-23.59.

4x400m -- France 3min.22.34sec; 2, Russia 3-24.06; 3, Germany 3-24.10;

4, Gt Britain 3-24.14; 5, Czech Republic 3-27.95; 6, Switzerland

3-28.78; 7, Poland 3-29.75.

High jump -- 1, B Bilac (Slovenia) 2.00m; 2, Y Gulyayeva (Rus) 1.96;

3, N Zilinskiene (Lith) 1.93; 4, I Babakova (Ukr) 1.93; 5, H Haugland

(Nor) 1.93; 6, H Balck (Ger) 1.93; 7, S Leseva (Bul) and Y Topchina

(Rus) 1.90; 9, T Shevchik (Belarus) 1.90; 10, S Kirchmann (Aut) 1.90;

11, H Henkel (Ger) and Z Kovacikova (Czech) 1.85.