Success for Spain in European Indoor Athletics Championships: twice as many medals as last time around

High-jumper Ruth Beitia, 37 (second picture), who won a gold in Rio de Janeiro last year in what she is fairly certain would be her last Olympics, took the silver – her fourth, and the sixth medal of her career in European Championship indoor events – after clearing 1.94 metres (6'4.4”), ahead of Ukraine's Yuliya Levchenko with the same height and behind Lithuania's Airiné Palsyte, 24, who beat her world and own two-metre (6'6”) record by clearing the bar at 2.01 metres (6'7”).

Ruth has won 15 medals in international tournaments, both World and European Championships, indoor and outdoor events – six golds, including one in the under-23s in Amsterdam in 2001; six silvers and four bronzes, with her best indoor European Championship result being in Göteburg, Sweden in 2013.

Beitia's was Spain's first medal of the games and meant the country had already reached 50% of its result in Prague 2015, when Spanish athletes returned home with two silvers.

The veteran high-jumper was swiftly followed up by Adel Mechaal with a gold in the indoor 3,000 metres running, just a year after clinching the European Reserve Champion title in the 5,000 metres outdoors.

Mechaal (pictured), who was able to run in Belgrade after the Sporting Arbitrage Tribunal (SAT) temporarily lifted a suspension for suspected doping after three failed tests, wore a banner across his waist reading 'I run clean', insisting he has never taken any type of performance-enhancing drugs.

“I didn't know whether I'd be able to compete [in Belgrade] until 20 days ago, when the temporary lifting of the suspension came through,” Mechaal, a 26-year-old Moroccan with a Spanish passport, admitted.

“I have to give thanks to Spain for letting me demonstrate my talent and for welcoming me and my family here, and I want to say how proud I am to be able to wear the Spanish colours and give my new country back all that it's done for me.”

Mechaal, who was born in the northern city of Tetouan, scooped up the gold in a time of eight minutes, 00.6 seconds – three hundreds-of-a-second faster than Norwegian silver medallist Henrik Ingebrigtsen (pictured next to Mechaal) who finished in 8:00.93 and 0.4 of a second ahead of Germany's Richard Ringer on 8:01.01, who took the bronze.

Alicante-born Jorge Ureña took the heptathlon silver with a total of 6,227 points – the second-best result ever in Spanish athletics history – behind French gold-winner Kevin Mayer who set a new European record with 6,479 points, beating the original set by the Czech Republic's Roman Sebrle in 2004 of 6,438 points.

And it was a Czech who took the bronze in the heptathlon behind Ureña – Adam Helcelet, who finished on 6,110 points.

Two years after Ureña, from Onil in the south-west of the Alicante province, won the European Sub-23 silver in the outdoor category, he has just achieved the same in his first year in the Seniors in the indoor section.

Álvaro de Arriba, from Salamanca, was the third medal-winner of the Championships with a bronze in the indoor 800 metres – the first time three Spaniards made it into a final over this distance on the flat.

Arriba finished in a time of one minute, 49.68 seconds, just ahead of his compatriot Daniel Andújar, whilst Spain's record-holder Kevin López finished sixth.

López, who took the silver in 2013 and bronze in 2011, described 'stabbing pains' in his lower back close to his hip, which dragged him down, whilst Arriba, who had been determined to get the silver, lost vital hundredths of a second after he tripped on the last lap.

He was pleased to have taken home a medal, though, even though it was a bronze, whilst Andújar – disappointed at not clinching one of the top three spots – admitted that the experience of competing in the European Indoor Championship final was 'beautiful'.

The uncontested favourite for the 800 metres indoor race was Poland's Adam Kszczot, who reached his goal of scooping up a third consecutive gold in the games with a finishing time of one minute, 48.87 seconds.

Held every two years since 1990 – having been annual for the previous 20 years – and organised by the European Athletics Association, the Indoor Championships have taken place four times in Spain: San Sebastián in 1977, Madrid in 1986 and 2005 – the only time the games has gone three years rather than two without being celebrated – and Valencia in 1998.

The 2019 games will be held for the second time in its history in Glasgow – which hosted the event in 1990 – and the third time in the UK, after Birmingham's National Indoor Arena was the venue for the 2007 tournament.