13th July 2013 10:45
Bryan Cantero of France led through a pacy first 400m in 60.44, but it did not prevent a fall from Ingebrigtsen just after the 800m mark.
The incident also saw his brother, Filip, and Turky’s Levent Ates running on the infield for 10m. The race was won by Ireland’s Paul Robinson with Filip Ingebrigtsen, Tarik Moukrime of Belgium and Cantero safely through.
Henrik Ingebrigtsen tried his best to catch the leaders but not even he is that fast and he eventually finished a frustrated 10th The Norwegian team protested but the request was turned down.
Having watched how the women did it earlier Spain’s Alberto Imedio decided it was best to employ the same front running tactics in the first 1500m heat as the safest way to qualify, covering the first 400m in 61.97.
Keeping the pace lively, he allowed the field past at 1200m but maintained his place in the top four to qualify comfortably. First place went to Peter-Jan Hannes of Belgium in 3:42.88 with Timo Benitz of Germany and Charlie Grice of Great Britain going through by right.
Russia and Italy win 4x400m heats
Russia took the first heat of the 4x400m in a time of 3:09.33 with Ukraine second and the Czech Republic occupying the third slot. In the second heat Michele Tricca brought the baton home for the Italian quartet in a swifter 3:06.98.
Season leader Fyodorov furthest in qualifying
Russian Aleksey Fyodorov and France’s Gaetan Saku Bafuanga both went through to the final of the Triple Jump with single efforts of 16.79 and 16.72 respectively.
Both men are one and two in the season’s lists and on this form strong medal favourites.
Other qualifiers by right were France’s Aboubacar Bamba, Alexandru George Baciu of Romania and Aleksandr Yurchenko of Ukraine.
Harrer and Koster win 1500m heats
Silver medallist last time round in Ostrava, Corinna Harrer of Germany wanted no truck with a tactical race in the 1500m heats and took over at the 800m mark to win in 4:11.85 followed by Russia’s Anna Shchagina and Serbia’s Amela Terzic who won the European Junior cross country title in Budapest last December.
The fourth and final qualifier in this heat, Claudia Bobocea set a lifetime best of 4:15.84.
The Netherlands Maureen Koster adopted similar tactics to Harrer and duly won the second heat in 4:15 with Britain’s Laura Muir running a controlled race on her shoulder.
In fourth Türkiye’s Elif Karabulut ran a lifetime best 4:15.89.
Schippers on course for gold number two
100m gold medallist, Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands, qualified with her first Long Jump of 6.49 and was the only athlete to secure her place in the final by right. Alina Rotaru of Romania, Lena Malkus of Germany and Lorraine Ugen of Great Britain all cleared 6.30.
Craft and Rüh power to Discus final
Silver in the Shot the previous evening, Shanice Craft showed what she thought of the qualifying mark of 54m in the Discus by exceeding it with ease by three metres on her single throw of 57.38.
In the second group team-mate Anna Rüh went even further with 60.79. Others who had no difficulties with the distance were Greece’s Hristina Anagnostopoulou and Portugal’s Irina Rodrigues.
Muze leads the qualifiers
Latvia is looking for its second Javelin gold after Zigismunds Sirmais took the men’s title on Friday evening.
In this morning’s qualifiers, Lina Muze hurled the spear out to 57.04 with her first effort to get through by right.
The only other athlete to pass the tape set at 55.50 was German hope, Sarah Mayer, on 56.39, also with a single effort.
Season leader, Hanna Habina of the Ukraine required all three throws to go through with 54.71.
Shock of the morning was the elimination of Belarussian Tatsiana Khaladovic who fouled all three attempts. In April she set a PB of 59.37 and stands second on the season’s lists.
Johnson-Thompson leads
Katerina Johnson-Thompson has not competed in a Heptathlon at all this year but it seemed to make little difference as the 20 year old Liverpool Harrier ended the morning on a high by establishing a 42 point lead.
The Briton was supposed to have competed in Goetzis in May but an ankle injury forced a rethink.
So she came to Tampere without very much to go on, apart from one 200m and two hurdles races in the outdoor season.
But it was a storming start for Johnson-Thompson in heat three of the 100m Hurdles as she equalled her lifetime best of 13.48 set in last summer’s Olympic Games.
That time was worth 1,053 points, catapulting her straight into gold the medal position. It is early days but it was an encouraging sign.
Second and only 0.03 down was Ukrainian Anastasiya Mokhnyuk.
A delighted Michelle Zeltner of got her Heptathlon campaign off to a healthy start winning the first heat in a season’s best 14.38.
In second, France’s Laura Arteil ran a 14.50PB. There were two more PBs in heat two as Lisa Linell of Sweden won in 13.97 followed by Sandra Jacmaire of France in 14.00.
The Briton bided her time while her closest rivals all worked their way through lower heights in the second event the High Jump before entering and clearing 1.72 to retain first place.
There was a wobble at 1.75 but then normal service was resumed with first time clearances at 1.78 and 1.81.
There was another wobble at 1.84 but she went over that on the second attempt for a season’s best.
Her only previous high jump this year came indoors and stood at 1.83.
Her closest rival at this stage, Mokhnyuk, went out at 1.81 and so the Briton had extended her slender 4pt lead over the Ukrainian to a valuable 42 points.
Anouk Vetter of the Netherlands, 1.81PB in the high jump, lies third, 111 points behind the Briton.