By Ian Gordon, PA Sport, Munich

Britain's 4x400m relay men triumphed in the final event to bring their European Championships to a golden climax in Munich.

The quartet of Jared Deacon, Matt Elias, Jamie Baulch and Daniel Caines won in three minutes 1.25seconds to claim their fifth successive title in the event.

The victory took Britain's gold medal tally to seven - just two less than Budapest four years ago and coming on the back of a gruelling Commonwealth Games - while there was also one silver and six bronze.

Caines just fended off his Russian rival to win by 0.09secs with Poland third in 3:01.86 while Ireland finished sixth in 3:04.26.

It meant Britain finished level with Russia on seven gold although their overall total of 14 was 10 down on their rivals.

Britain were lying in third place at the stagger but Elias, gutted after missing out on the 400m hurdles final, produced a repeat of his storming leg for Wales at the Commonwealths as he took them into the lead. The British hopes were helped when rivals Germany fell at the last after their runner tripped on the second leg.

Fellow Welshman Baulch kept the advantage of a few metres before handing over to Caines who had been disappointed after finishing third in the individual event.

The Birmingham-based runner kept his composure in the dying metres as the Russian closed to maintain Britain's hold on the relay event.

Elias celebrated by walking on his hands on the rain-sodden track while Baulch did forward somersaults.

Baulch said: "I saw them all tangle and the German fall, it made me feel horrible. I hate running from the front and I was cursing Matt for handing over to me in that position.

"But it was a great victory for us and one we felt was possible. I am delighted for Daniel getting a gold medal after just losing out in the final.

"Everybody keeps talking about split times. In a relay race they are totally irrelevant, what matters is that we get the baton around without any problems.

"Out there we showed all of those qualities."

Caines said: "That was not a bad run! The Germans only had one runner and we were not worried about him, the biggest threat to us was the Poles but they were always off the pace."

Poland were later disqualified with France moving up to the bronze medal position.