Chambers shows his muscle in Munich
Justin Palmer
Britain's Dwain Chambers underlined his status as favourite to win 100 metres gold at the European Championships with an impressive display of sprinting on Tuesday.
Chambers, bidding to atone for his Commonwealth Games disappointment when he pulled up with cramp in the final just over a week ago, set the fastest times in both rounds to breeze into the semi-finals.
Fellow Britons Darren Campbell, the defending European champion, and Jason Gardener also qualified.
The 24-year-old Chambers, who has beaten world-record holder Maurice Greene twice in recent months and set the fastest time by a European this season -- 10.03 seconds in Manchester in June -- barely got out of second gear but still clocked 10.23 in his first round heat.
He then followed up in even more impressive fashion, making light of the constant light drizzle and being flagged for a false start, to power up the straight in 10.08 later in the day.
"I got super acceleration," said Chambers. "That's all that I need."
Campbell, who edged out Chambers for gold in Budapest four years ago, recorded a pedestrian 10.36 in settling for second place in his opening heat behind Greece's Georgios Theodoridis, but then stepped up a gear to win his second round in 10.29.
The 28-year-old was not impressed with the conditions though. "It's wet and cold," was his blunt assessment.
HOPES BOOSTED
Gardener ran consistently to boost his hopes of a medal, clocking a best time of 10.28 in finishing runner-up in both his heats.
Another of Britain's top sprinters, Mark Lewis-Francis, is not competing in these championships after the 19-year-old tore a hamstring in Manchester.
Nigerian-born Francis Obikwelu, who competes for Portugal and has clocked 10.09 this season to put him among the medal favourites, never hit top-form but did enough to go through.
Britain has taken gold in the last four men's European 100 metres finals, stretching back to 1986 when Linford Christie won the first of his three titles in Stuttgart.
Greece's Ekaterini Thanou set the fastest qualifying time in the opening heats of the women's 100 metres. She scooted home in 11.07, registering the third quickest European time this season.
Spain's Glory Alozie (11.42), Italy's Manuela Levorato (11.46) and Belgium's Kim Gevaert (11.19) won the other heats.
The event is wide open in the absence of Ukraine's world champion Zhanna Pintusevich-Block, defending European champion Christine Arron of France and fellow Frenchwoman Muriel Hurtis, who is concentrating on the 200 metres.
The semi-finals and final of both the men's and women's 100 metres take place on Wednesday.
