at the 400 m of the european championships in barcelona, kevin borlée reached the final with two wins in the heats and the semi-finals in 45.71s and 45.32s respectively. in the final, kevin seemed to fall back after a good start, but with an impressive sprint in the last 50 m, he passed the pack to win in front of britain's michael bingham and martyn rooney in 45.08s, a season's best. with this win, he is only the third belgian male athlete to become a european champion. the last one was karel lismont on the marathon in 1971, the first one gaston roelants in 1962 on the steeple chase. his brother jonathan finished 7th in 45.35s.