The French hosts, depleted by injuries, forced their way onto the podium behind Poland at Britain's expense by a single point after an inspired display in the concluding men's 4x400 metres relay.

An unexpected second place, just 0.06sec behind the Polish favourites, topped off a home performance that had included victories for double Olympic 3,000m steeplechase silver medallist Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad and national treasure Renaud Lavillenie, who re-stated his pole vault credentials with a clearance of 5.80m after seeing off all opposition.

A couple of days after the 6.00m vault in the American trials by the man who took bronze behind his Rio 2016 silver, Sam Kendricks, the 30-year-old world record holder has made it clear that he cannot be discounted from earning the only gold medal missing from his collection when he competes at August's World Championships in London.

The German team, which had held an overnight lead of 16.50 points over Poland, whose initial first day score was adjusted down by one point, extended the gap by the conclusion of the ninth running of this competition, totalling 321.50, with Poland on 295, France on 270 and Britain on 269.

At the other end of things, Belarus, on 188.50, and The Netherlands, on 175, were relegated.

Two early disqualifications for Poland in the women's 100m hurdles, where Karolina Koleczek false-started, and the men's 800m, where Adam Kzczot's victory was annulled for stepping off the track, might have been crucial.

But in the end even two extra victories would not have altered the overall result, such was the measure of Germany's consistency.

The hosts, denied the sprinting talents of Jimmy Vicaut and Christophe Lemaitre, ended in buoyant mood, with Lavillenie's achievement in earning a sixth win in his seventh appearance at this competition being cause for the most celebration.

Class eventually told in the men's 110m hurdles as Spain's Olympic silver medallist Orlando Ortega, who has a personal best of 12.94, pulled clear of the field over the final couple of hurdles to win in 13.20, equalling the Championship record set in 2014 by Russia's current world champion Sergey Shubenkov.

After Koleczek had been disqualified despite arguing her case with officials for almost 10 minutes, the German favourite in the 100m hurdles, Pamela Dutkiewicz, duly extracted the maximum advantage for the competition leaders by winning in 12.75.

The Polish score then took another serious hit when 11 points apparently delivered by their European indoor and outdoor 800m champion Kzczot were annulled as he was disqualified for stepping onto the infield in the back straight of the final lap as he forced his way through to take the lead. 

Thijmen Kupers thus claimed maximum points for The Netherlands in 1min 47.18sec.

Another overwhelming favourite, Poland's European and double world champion Pawel Fajdek, fouled the first two of his four throws in the hammer, but normal service was resumed in the third round as he produced a winning effort of 78.29m.

Emerging German 1,500m talent Konstanze Klosterhalfen, the 20-year-old who has taken more than seven seconds off her personal best this season with 3:59.30, earned a bold win in 4:09.57 after making her move with two laps to go.

A hugely competitive women's high jump was eventually won by Poland's 2014 joint world indoor champion Kamila Licwinko as she equalled her season's best of 1.97m before having three unsuccessful attempts at 2.00m.

Germany's Marie-Laurence Jungfleisch also cleared 1.97, a season's best, but withdrew after one failure at 2.00, taking second place on count-back in front of the Czech Republic's Michaela Hruba, who set a national under-20 record of 1.94.

Italy’s fourth-placed Alessia Trost managed a clearance of 1.94, a season's best.

There was drama in the discus as Germany's 2012 Olympic champion Robert Harting reclaimed his first round lead from Robert Urbanek with a final effort of 66.30m that was five centimetres further than the Pole's best.

Germany's Max Hess kept up his team's momentum in the final hour as he claimed maximum points with a triple jump of 17.02m, equalling his season's best.

Poland won the women's 4x400m relay in 3:27.60, the fastest time in Europe this season, from Ukraine in 3:28.02 and Germany in 3:28.47.

Shortly before the men's relay, the last individual event - the women’s javelin - saw the Czech Republic's world record holder and double Olympic champion Barbora Spotakova take over the lead with a final effort and season's best of 65.14m that Tatsiana Khaladovich of Belarus, who had thrown 64.60 in the first round, was unable to better.