Pickering took seven hundredths of a second off his PB

Britain's men now lie in fourth place going into the second day.

Britain's women, looking for promotion back to the top flight, are six points clear at the top of their table.

There were wins in Finland for Tasha Danvers-Smith (400m hurdles), Lee McConnell (400m), Goldie Sayers (javelin) and the sprint relay quartet.

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Britain's men's 4x100m quartet matched their female counterparts with a fine win at the end of the first day to leave Britain on 48 points, eight behind Poland in third and with France and Germany out on top.

Tyrone Edgar got the relay team off to a good start before Pickering and Marlon Devonish built a decent lead, with Mark Lewis-Francis hanging on to anchor them home in 38.30 secs - which equalled the fastest time in the world this year.

The men have had an acceptable day at the office GB performance director Dave Collins

Pickering had begun the afternoon with a personal best time of 10.15 seconds to win the 100m.

He said: "I'm very pleased with that. I did not get the best start but towards the end it went quite well. To get a personal best, I'm quite happy."

There were second places for Tim Benjamin in the 400m, Andy Baddelely in the 1500m and Carl Myerscough in the shot put, with Benjamin overcoming a slow start to come through in the last 50m.

Benjamin said: "It's alright. I'm getting there but I just want to get there quicker.

"I wanted to stay relaxed in the first 200m and then go a bit quicker. I hope second was good enough."

Myerscough produced a fine 19.96m in the shot, picking up seven points for the team in his first competition of the year.

UK Athletics performance director Dave Collins said: "The men have had an acceptable day at the office. We've missed a couple of athletes but overall had some very promising performances.

"Craig and Andy were excellent. We're on track. We've genuinely made progress.

"There's obviously more to come, but I don't think anyone could look at the team and results and say that we haven't made progress."

Women's team captain Sayers led from the front as she won the javelin competition with a throw of 60.41m to put Britain firmly in control in Finland

Earlier, the 4x100m team had stormed to a clear victory to bag another eight points.

Eight points would have been good but I'll take the seven Joice Maduaka

And McConnell - standing in for the injured Nicola Sanders - eased to an impressive win in the 400m.

Danvers-Smith had given the team the perfect start with victory in the 400m hurdles.

Running in lane eight, she held on over the final 80m to clock a respectable 55.88 seconds.

"I was hoping for a faster time," Danvers-Smith told BBC Sport. "The track was a lot harder than I thought it would be and the wind was in my face."

Marilyn Okoro took second in the 800m, while Barbara Parker ran a plucky race in the 3,000m to take fourth spot and five points.

Maduaka, the pre-race favourite, added another seven points to the women's total by finishing second to Johanna Manninen in the 100m.

"I did what I could do from the other side of the track," said Maduaka, who was in lane one. "Eight points would have been good but I'll take the seven. I did the best I could."