By Steve Cram BBC Sport in Annecy

The European Cup is a competition I really enjoy because you get pure athletic performances and Sunday was a great day's athletics all round.

British men win European Cup

We had a lot of success and to be honest the men won fairly easily.

Sometimes these competitions come down to a point or even half a point, and to win with a little bit in hand is a very good effort.

And, once it become clear that they would have to finish in the top five to avoid relegation, the women got themselves together very well.

Captain Dwain Chambers gets the traditional dunking

They had a poor first day, with the 4x100m relay team failing to score and Kelly Holmes finishing a disappointing fourth, but I thought they did very well on Sunday.

It helped that we had a lot of our big names out and it bodes very well for the European championships.

When it comes to picking the outstanding performance I am a little bit biased, but I thought Jo Pavey had a fantastic run to come second in the 5,000m.

It is very difficult for people to understand exactly how hot it was in Annecy - you are talking about temperatures around 100F - and those are really difficult conditions for the distance athletes.

I thought all the distance athletes acquitted themselves really well, but Jo in particular produced a great performance.

But you also have to hand it to all of our winners.

I guess Colin Jackson and Jonathan Edwards are used to being applauded for winning.

Unsung heroes

But people like Chris Tomlinson and Marlon Devonish, who could have come second or third if he had not got it right, really shone.

In a team competition you also have to hand some of the plaudits to the athletes further down the field as well.

The likes of Anthony Whiteman and Simon Lees had to do their bit and they did it.

This weekend was a big step forward for quite a lot of people.