Hagen Pohle broke a 10-year Russian stranglehold on the 10,000m walk title in Tallinn this morning as the German added the European junior title to the world youth crown he picked up two years ago.

Echoing Yelena Lashmanova’s world record victory in the women’s event on Thursday, Pohle won it from the front, leading from start to finish to clock 40:43.73, some five seconds outside his season lead.

Pohle’s victory is the first for Germany in this event since Andreas Erm won in 1995 and the first by a non-Russian since 1999.

Wearing a peaked red cap and bright green shoes, Pohle dominated the second half of the race with his pattering style. He finished more than 100m ahead of Ihor Lyashenko as the Ukrainian followed him home to take silver in 41:10.43 with Spain’s Luís Alberto Amezcua bagging bronze and a personal best of 41:34.13.

“Gold tastes really good today,” said Pohle afterwards. “It was really stuffy out there today but the previous days were hotter so I knew what to expect and drank a lot of water. I focused on my race and not the weather.”