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| Austra Skujyte of Lithuania leads the pentathlon field after three events on the opening day of the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Paris. |
Austra Skujyte enjoys a healthy lead at the top of the pentathlon standings after three events littered with personal bests on an action-packed opening morning at the Palais-Omnisports de Paris Bercy.
The Lithuanian amassed 3042 points while French favourite Antoinette Nana Djimou Ida set PBs in the hurdles, high jump and shot put to lie second, 112 back with the long jump and 800m to come this afternoon.
But it’s the woman in third who shocked the competition. Remona Fransen lowered her hurdles PB with 8.64, added 9cm to her high jump best with 1.92, and put the shot a full metre further than she ever has before.
The 25-year-old Dutchwoman, who’s competing in her first major championships, indoor, outdoor, senior or junior, is now on 2919 points, just 11 behind Nana Djimou but 166 ahead of Poland’s Karolina Tyminska in fourth.
It was clear from the opening event of the championships that the Palais-Omnisports track is fast as no fewer than seven pentathletes matched or beat their PBs in the 60m hurdles, including the three leaders. Skujyte followed her 8.60 with a 1.83 high jump and a massive 17.53 throw that shot her into the overall lead.
Nana Djimou was quickest in the hurdles with 8.11, high jumped 1.80, and produced a 14.16 shot.
But Fransen’s performance was most remarkable of all, largely thanks to an unbelievable high jump some 14cm better than her best this year. After matching her previous lifetime best at 1.83, the flying Dutchwoman cleared 1.86 at the second attempt, 1.89 at the third, and needed just one to soar over 1.92.
The morning’s other impressive field event effort came from Gaetan Bucki who improved his lifetime best for the second time this winter to give the home crowd plenty to cheer about. The Frenchman went out to 20.39 with his opening throw to lead this evening’s finallists.
In the final round, Portugal’s Marco Fortes threw a national record 20.34 to end the morning as second best. Favourite Ralf Bartels of Germany (20.33) and Russian champion Maksim Sidorov (20.19) only needed one throw to progress, but there was a surprise exit for Ukraine’s Andriy Semenov who has thrown 20.62 this winter.
Natalya Kutyakova was top qualifier in the women’s triple jump, the Russian leaping 2cm beyond her PB at 14.44. Italian Simona La Mantia was best of the rest with her longest of the year, 14.38, while two of the pre-event favourites failed to go through.
European number one Katja Demut of Germany and Paraskeví Papahrísto, the Greek under 23 champion, have both leapt beyond 14.40 this year but neither were close to 14m this morning. Papahrísto’s teammate Niki Paneta did not compete as seven exceeded the 14.10 qualfiying mark.
Teddy Tamgho’s ambition to complete the long and triple jump double is still on track after a third round leap of 7.97m helped the French superstar top the qualifiers for tomorrow’s final.
The World Indoor triple jump record holder proved he also has raw ability in his second-string event, although it was a far from memorable preliminary session as not one athlete achieved the 8.05m automatic qualifying distance.
European leader Louis Tsatoumas failed to advance to the eight-strong final, winding up 13th with a best of 7.81m, although he has endured recent injury issues. European No.4 Eusebio Caceres of Spain also failed to advance in tenth (7.83m) and Tamgho’s last round jump relegated his countryman French record holder Salim Sdiri (7.88m) to ninth and outside a final spot.
On the track, all the title favourites safely negotiated their opening rounds.
Mo Farah predicted a “very fast” 3000m final after he made light work of qualifying from this morning’s heats. Europe’s double outdoor distance champion cruised to victory in 8:02.36 ahead of Portugal’s Rui Silva. The Briton adopted his customary tactics, jogging at the rear of the pack until the last third when he stretched the field before outsprinting Silva on the final lap.
“I did what I had to do,” said the European 5000m record holder. “Hopefully, tomorrow I will be very fast.”
Hayle Ibrahimov was the quickest qualifier. The Azerbaijani record holder won heat two in 8:00.36 ahead of Florian Carvalho as Spain’s 2009 bronze medallist Jesús Espaí±a diced with danger before squeezing through in third.
Frenchman Yohan Durand won the third heat in 8:01.24, but Spanish hopes Víctor García and Javier Alves were both run out of the final.
Christina Vukicevic of Norway dispensed with the women’s 60m hurdles problem-free in a nippy 7.95, her fifth sub-8sec clocking of the season. Second fastest was Germany’s Carolin Nytra on 7.96 running from the same lane seven as the Norwegian.
Tiffany Ofili of Great Britain clocked 8.05 for third fastest at this stage of the competition. Torino bronze medallist, Ireland’s Derval O’Rourke, came though safely, finishing second in her heat with 8.07. The shock of the round was the elimination of 7.84 performer, Josephine Onyía of Spain, who returned a disappointing 8.33.
World leader Olesya Krasnomovets made no mistakes in the women’s 400m. The powerful Russian was world indoor champion in 2006 and made her experience tell, winning the second race with ease in 53.75.
She’ll be joined in this afternoon’s semis by compatriot Kseniya Zadorina who strode through heat three in 54.25. The main threat will come from Vania Stambolova. The Bulgarian cruised through the first heat in 53.05, the quickest of the morning.
Defending champion Johan Wissman was the major casualty of the first round of the men’s 400m after a disappointing heat four display. The Swede never looked comfortable from the outset and slipped from second at the bell down to third in 47.95 – out of the two automatic qualification positions. Great Britain’s national champion Nigel Levine edged the heat by 0.01 in 47.73 from German David Gollnow.
Britain enjoyed an impressive opening round as Richard Buck, fifth in Turin, qualified quickest for tonight’s semi-finals in 46.57 with a controlled heat one performance. Meanwhile, Richard Strachan ensured Britain will have a full complement of three athletes into the next round by cruising to a comfortable heat two win in 47.54.
German Thomas Schneider eased into tonight’s semi-finals with a no nonsense heat three win in 47.10, and the fastest athlete in the field this year, Leslie Djhone of France, demonstrated his gold medal-winning potential by powering to heat five victory in 46.63.