Irina Davydova underscored her Olympic gold medal credentials by winning the 400-meter hurdles at the European Championships yesterday in the year’s best time.

Davydova has made major progress this year and powered away on the finishing straight to cross in 53.77 seconds, improving on her former world best by .10 seconds.

“The time totally surprised me,” she said, as the race was in blustery, cool 15-degree (59 F) conditions.

Czech Denisa Rosolova took silver in 54.24.

On a big day for Russia, Yuriy Borzakovskiy also triumphed.

Eight years after his Olympic title, Borzakovskiy finally won another major race when he came from behind in the 800 meters.

At 31, the Russian needed a slow race and got it, lying well back for most of the race before proving he still had that old finishing kick. He timed 1:48.61, more than six seconds off his best.

Andreas Bube of Denmark crossed .06 seconds later, and Pierre Ambroise Bosse of France got bronze.

Borzakovskiy won gold at the 2004 Athens Games, but the closest he ever got to a major title since then was finishing second at the 2005 world championships in Helsinki.

Another veteran also had a major breakthrough.

Shot-putter Nadine Kleinert of Germany won her first major title at 36, beating Irina Tarasova of Russia and Chiara Rosa of Italy. Kleinert had won three world silvers before.

In the steeplechase, defending champion Mahiedine Mekhissi-Benabbad was threatened until the final hurdle in a slow race, but at that point, Spain’s Victor Garcia crashed, allowing the Frenchman to coast to gold. Garcia quickly got up again and was passed by only Tarik Langat Akdag before ending up with bronze.

Ivet Lalova’s quest for a sprint double at the championships ended in the 200 semi-finals late yesterday.

Lalova won the 100 on Thursday and found the going too tough with two more races yesterday. The Bulgarian finished fifth in her semi-final heat, well out of contention for today’s final.

On a day featuring 12 finals, defending champion Betty Heidler failed to make the final of the hammer throw, a major setback on the road to the Olympics.

Heidler won the 2007 world title and was runner-up in 2009 and 2011 and is considered a gold medal contender for the London Games.

She botched her qualifying yesterday, though, finishing only ninth in her group and outside the top 12 overall with a throw of 65.06 meters. Her European record stands at 79.42.

She apologized to fans and said that “at least I know now what I must not do during the Olympic Games.”