Ringer blazes in 3,000 to lead Germany to Euro team title
Germany won the two-day European Team Championships ahead of defending champion Russia on Sunday with an overall 10 individual victories in 40 events.
German athletes started with a three-point advantage following Saturday's competitions.
Richard Ringer set a championship record to win the men's 3,000 meters in 7 minutes, 50.99 seconds, Timo Benitz ran a lifetime best 1:46.24 in the men's 800, Andreas Hofmann threw a personal best 86.13 meters to win the javelin, Robert Harting threw 67.42 to win the discus and Christina Schwanitz won the women's shot put with 19.43.
Malaika Mihambo also set a championship record of 6.90 to win the women's long jump.
Germany finished with 371 points, ahead of Russia on 359.5 and France on 295. Poland and Britain were next with 293 and 281.5 points, respectively.
It was Germany's second win after victory in Leira, Portugal, in 2009.
''We're happy to see that we're the leading nation in Europe,'' said German athletics federation president Clemens Prokop.
Sergey Shubenkov ran a championship record of 13.20 to win the men's 110 hurdles for Russia, which also claimed victory in the men's 4 x 400 and triple jump where Aleksey Fyodorov had a leap of 16.95.
French success came in the men's steeplechase and women's 100 hurdles with championship records in both. Yoann Kowal finished the steeplechase in 8:25.50 and Cindy Billard ran 12.66.
Frenchman Renaud Lavillenie also won the pole vault.
Sweden claimed the women's 1,500 and 5,000 through Abeba Aregawi in 4:14.20 and Meraf Bahta in 15:36.3, respectively.
Karol Zalewski won the men's 200 in 20.56 for Poland and Dafne Schippers claimed the women's 200 in 22.74 for the Netherlands.
Ukraine won the women's 4 x 400, but Germany finished second to move another step closer to overall victory.