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| Poland's Krzysztof Brzozowski produced a brilliant series topped by a mammoth 20.92m throw to win the men's shot put gold medal at the European Athletics Junior Championships in Tallinn on Thursday. |
Krzysztof Brzozowski dominated the men’s shot put final on the first evening of the 21st European Athletics Junior Championships in Tallinn today to hand Poland its first gold with a world leading throw of 20.92.
Some two hours later, Spain’s Gabriel Navarro won the men’s 10,000m with an unstoppable solo performance.
Brzozowski led from round one when he unleashed the put to 20.36, a distance only he and Italy’s Daniele Secci have beaten this year. The shaven-headed putter went on to throw 20.29 in the second, had a long 20m+ foul in round four, and landed his longest effort in five.
That was not only 31cm longer than his previous lifetime best, but a Polish junior record and a distance only Germany’s David Storl has beaten at these championships – the incredible world junior record holder won with 22.44 in Novi Sad two years ago.
“I am very happy but that is no surprise,” said the understated Brzozowski. “This competition was very important to me, I have been training about six or seven months for this.
“I was surprised to have achieved this result but I am very happy because the crowd here is great.”
Secci snatched silver with a last round effort of 20.45 leaving Germany’s Christian Jaguschi to collect the bronze.
Navarro’s gold was the first for Spain at this event since Ricardo Fernandez won on home soil in San Sebastián back in 1993. Navarro simply strode away from the entire 10-man field in the fading sunshine of the Kadriorg Stadium to win in 30:02.18.
Belgian Emmanuel Lejeune came with a late surge from ninth place to take silver in 31:35.19 with Poland’s Szymon Kulka claiming bronze in 31:50.13 after Briton Paul Thompson had collapsed just a lap from home while in second place.
100m semis
There was drama elsewhere too as the afternoon session brought Europe’s fast boys to the track for the first time for the 100m semi-finals following cancellation of the heats this morning.
And French favourite Jimmy Vicault wasted little time in stamping his authority on the event as he blasted to a personal best of 10.12 to become equal fifth fastest European junior of all time.
Vicault made light work of the -1.8m/s wind and will now have Christophe Lemaître’s European junior record of 10.04 in his sights as he guns for the title won by his famous countryman in 2009. Vicault’s victory was nothing if not emphatic as he left Sam Watts a good 10 metres adrift, the bemused Briton clocking 10.66 in second.
Watts will have good company in the final, however, as his compatriots David Bolarinwa, in 10.55, and Adam Gemili, in 10.49, won the other semis – although on this evidence they will all be chasing Vicault’s speedy shadow.
“I hope to get a time under 10.10 in the final,” declared Vicault. “This is the most important race of the season and I have prepared for it for a long time.
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| Spain’s Gabriel Navarro celebrates after winning the men’s 10,000m with an unstoppable solo performance in Tallinn. |
“I personally think that the Brits are my biggest competition, they have great chances in the final,” he added. “Concerning my career, the main goal is to set a new French record.”
Britons also featured strongly in the women’s semis where gold medal favourite Jodie Williams produced her best form of the year to lead the qualifiers and her teammate Marylyn Nwawulor qualified from the first heat.
Running into a headwind, Williams had to work hard to get clear of Germany’s Tatjana Lofamakanda Pinto but won with room to spare at the end, shaving a hundredth from her season’s best in 11.33. “I wanted to run a little faster, but I have to save something for the final,” said Williams.
There she’ll face Nwawulor, who finished 0.07s behind heat one winner, Jamile Samuel. The Dutch athlete edged ahead of the field in the last 30m to clock 11.64 and remains Williams’ main threat.
Big names
Two of the other ‘big names’ of these championships were in action in the field event qualifiers – Latvia’s Zigismunds Sirmais in the men’s javelin and Angelica Bengtsson in the women’s pole vault.
It took Sirmais a couple of throws to get his stride but the world junior record holder soon hit 76.69 to go through automatically. Pavel Mialeshka was the best of the qualifiers with a big PB of 77.52.
Bengtsson meanwhile had two failures en route to the automatic height of 4.10 but the Swedish star takes her place in the final alongside Russia’s event leader Natalya Demidenko and Ukraine’s Hannah Sheleh.
Heptathlon
Diane Schippers called on all her sprinting prowess at the end of the first day of the heptathlon to retake the lead following two below-par field events.
After her disappointing high jump this morning, the world junior champion was again below her best in the shot with 13.47, well short of her PB of 14.19. It was good enough to move her up from fifth to third, however, as Sara Gambetta’s 14.74 effort gave the German a short-lived lead ahead of Christina Kiffe.
But Schippers is the quickest 200m runner in Europe this year and she quickly erased her 82-point deficit with a devastating half lap. The flying Dutch woman won the third race by some 15 metres in 22.91, one hundredth outside her PB but worth 1088 points to give her an overnight total of 3702.
Gambetta lies second with 3608 with Britain’s Katrina Johnson-Thompson third thanks to two PBs in the day.
Other track events
The two favourites ran eyeball-to-eyeball down the home straight in the first of the men’s 400m semis before Nikita Uglov of Russia broke the tape just ahead of his Hungarian rival, Marcell Deák-Nagy, in 46.36. Uglov’s teammate Radel Kashefrazov took the second semi in 46.70.
There were fast times in the women’s semis too where Adelina Pastor of Romania won heat one in 52.77, a PB by nearly a second, and Yulia Yurenya of Belarus equalled her PB with 53.17 to win heat two.
Event leader Bianca Razor responded with 53.08 to book her place in the final. In all, eight women ran PBs and 53.89 was needed to make the final as a fastest loser.
Anastasiya Tkuchuk will take her place in Saturday’s 800m final fully confident of her gold medal chances after the Ukrainian destroyed the field in the last of three semi-finals this afternoon. Tkuchuk, who’s run 2:00.37 this year, opened a 20m lead by the time she entered the home straight and jogged over the line in 2:04.98, the fastest of the round.
Britain’s Rowena Cole won heat one comfortably in 2:05.65 while Tkuchuk’s teammate Olha Lyakhovaya was an impressive winner of heat two in 2:07.96. French athlete Lisa Blameble also put herself in the frame with a personal best of 2:06.12.
Event leader Thomas Solberg Eide had to come from behind to win his 1500m semi-final. The Norwegian, who’s clocked 3:40.22 this year, was boxed on the final lap but outsprinted Italy’s Mohad Abdikar Sheik Ali to win in 3:50.88 with Germany’s Marcel Fehr third.
Andy Cotton won the marginally quicker second semi in 3:50.80 while Britain’s other hope Charlie Grice made it as a fastest qualifier.
Gesa-Felicitas Krause got her Tallinn campaign underway with a comfortable victory in the steeplechase semi-finals. The German event leader won the second heat in 10:06.71.
Gulshat Fazlitdinova is thought to be Krause’s main rival and the Russian confirmed that this evening by winning heat one in 10:01.88, three seconds inside her PB.
Other field events
Event favourite Nikita Anishchenkov had one failure at the high jump qualifying height of 2.15 but the Russian record holder is safely through to Saturday’s final along with his teammate Daniyil Tsyplakov. Denmark’s Janick Klausen was most economical of all, taking only two jumps to go through alongside Italy’s medal hope Gianmarco Tamberi.
A consistent headwind put the long jump qualifying mark of 7.60 beyond reach for all but Russia’s Sergey Morgunov and Tomasz Jaszczuk of Poland. Morgunov leapt 7.80 while Jaszczuk was close on his heels with 7.67.
Türkiye’s Kaan Sencan and Valentin Toboc of Romania were best of the rest, both with 7.52.
The 2009 world youth champion Yana Borodina qualified with ease for the women’s triple jump final. The Russian needed just one effort to go through, landing at 13.61 more than 30cm further than anyone else. Finland’s Kristiina Mí¤kelí¤ was closest with 13.28 as none of the medal hopes missed out.
It was a similar story in the women’s discus which looks set to be a battle between German pair Anna Rüh and Shanice Craft and Ukraine’s Viktoriya Klochko as all three made light work of qualifying.
Rüh set the standard with 53.93 in group A only to be bettered by Klochko’s personal best of 54.54 which led the qualifiers overall. Craft also needed just one attempt, reaching 53.40.
Click on the links for complete results and athlete interviews from Tallinn 2011