29th June 2012 00:53
The major news story was from the women's hammer as the world record holder Betty Heidler was only the 17th best in qualifying and the big name of the event won't participate in the final.
She threw just 65.06m compared to her record throw of 79.42.
The German said, 'I must apologise to my audience. I don't know what went wrong. I prepared well. At least I know what I must not do during the Olympics.'
The ambitious qualifying distance of 71.00m was beaten by just one single competitor with almost the last throw of qualifying. The Polish world champion from 2009, and former world record holder Anita Wlodarczyk threw 71.38m to set herself up as a clear favourite.
The Pole said, 'I'm happy to make the final. I wanted all three throws to feel the rink for the finals. I'm shocked about Betty.'
Marina Marghieva, who was sixth in the 2010 final and eighth in last year's world championships won group A with 69.86m for the second best throw. Slovakia's Martina Hrasnova, who was the 2009 World championships bronze medallist, but has failed to make the last two European finals, made it third time lucky.
The first event on the track on a sunny day three was the 100m hurdles. Heat one started with an impressive victory for Nevin Yanit. The reigning champion had a modest season's best of 13.05 but with a superb display of crisp hurdling she went from outside the European top 20 to third but quickest of those competing with a 12.78 victory. The Turk won by almost two metres from Ekaterina Poplavskay, who timed 12.97, and was easily the quickest.
The second heat was won by Austria's Beatte Scrott in a season's best 12.98. Heat three saw victory for Italian Marzia Caravelli in 13.03, just ahead of Germany's 2009 European indoor champion Eline Berings who timed 13.09.
The final heat was won in impressive style by Belarus's world indoor bronze medallist Alina Talay in the second fastest time of the morning of 12.93.
It took a time of 13.17 to make the semi-finals and the fastest non qualifier was Finland's Nooralotta Neziri and her 13.23 was a national junior record.
Indicative of the incredibly high standard of throwers entered, the men's discus qualifying was set at an exceptionally hard 66 metres. That distance is further than any previous Olympics or World championships, and a mark that has only been bettered previously in qualifying four times in qualifying the history of the European Championships.
Mario Pestano made it five. The Spaniard wasn't probably expected to throw that far as his previous season's best was just 64.21m but he has been a top six placer the past three championships.
Hungary's Olympic 2004 silver medallist Zoltan Kovago missed it by one centimetre with his 65.99m which did actually hit the qualifying line tape.
Next in line was double world champion Robert Harting who threw 65.49m, Dutchman Eric Cadee, who achieved 65.09m, Britain's European under-23 champion Lawrence Okoye who did 64.86m and Estonia's reigning Olympic champion Gerd Kanter who managed 64.85m.
Ultimately 62.35m was sufficient to make the final as the 12th best mark.
The first round of the women's 200m saw Ukrainian Mariya Ryemen, who won the silver medal in the European indoor 60m, run the fastest time of 22.77 to win heat four.
Also impressing as heat winners were France's reigning European champion Myriam Soumare who won heat one in 22.96, Ukrainian Viktoria Pyatchenko who won heat two in 22.96, European junior heptathlon champion Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands, who won heat four in 23.11 and former Olympic 200 finalist Abi Oyepitan of Britain, who won heat five in 23.05. 100m champion Ivet Lalova finished third in 23.58. Only a handful of athletes were eliminated and 23.97 proved sufficient for qualification.
The first round of the men's 200m took place and there was a lot of similar times though one stood out particularly.
The fastest was Belgium's Jonathan Borlee, who timed 20.61 to win the opening heat. The brother of 2010 400m champion Kevin, he will be keen to join his twin as an European champion in tomorrow's final, having actually been the favourite over the longer distance in Barcelona.
The second fastest time of 20.73 was shared by Borlee's runner-up Ben Bassaw of France and heat four winner Likourgos-Stefanos Tsakonas of Greece.
Other heat winners were Netherland's Churandy Martina, who timed 20.74 in heat two, Patrick Van Luick of Belgium who won heat three in 20.78 and Briton Danny Talbot who took heat five in 20.82. The slowest qualifying mark was 21.27.
The athletes are gradually adjusting to the tight bends with just three disqualifications for lane infringements
The men's long jump qualifying saw two-time champion of Germany Sebastian Bayer a class apart with a windy 8.34m/2.4m jump but it was very close behind.
At one stage the measurement gauge seemed to get stuck around 7.80m and there were 10 jumpers separated by 2 cm though gradually the required distance advanced and it took 7.89m to qualify and much to the crowd's delight one of those was Tommy Evila, who leapt 8.01m/1.1.
Sweden's Michel Torneus was second in qualifying with 8.07/0.0. Missing out with almost the final jump was Britain's 2010 bronze medallist Chris Tomlinson, whose 7.84m/0.3m eventually proved five cm too short as he got passed.
Beyer said, 'It was good I'm very satisfied. With a single jump into the final, it's as good as it could be.'
The Heptathlon started with excellent conditions in the 100m hurdles as seven athletes set PBs. France's European indoor pentathlon champion Ida Antoniette Nana Djimou ran her best time of 13.11 for 1108 points while Estonian Grit Sadeiko was also delighted with her 13.36 to win her heat, and score 1071 points.
The favourite Ukraine's Lyudmila Yosypenko, who tops the rankings of those here, with her 6501 score from Gotzis, started well with a PB equaling 13.42 to score 1062 points.
Russian Yekterina Bolshova who was fifth in the hurdles moved into a clear lead with a fine 1.86m jump for 1054 points and with a score of 2081 she led from Latvian Laura Ikauniece on 2062, who jumped 1.83m. Nana Djimou dropped to third on 2049 with a 1.77m clearance.
It was all change in the third event as Yosypenko threw a season's best of 14.32m for 815 points and that put her in the lead on 2818, just 10 ahead of Nana Djimou who threw 13.48m with Eliska Klucinova of the Czech Republic moving up to third on 2798 after a 14.21m throw. Bolshova plummeted to fifth after a 12.36m throw and Ikauniece from second to seventh with an even weaker 11.81m.