He complained of exhaustion after the 200m heats that came hard on the heels of the 100m final which he won, but a night’s sleep worked wonders for James Alaka of Great Britain as he stormed to a 20.59PB in heat one on Saturday morning. In second there was a national record for Belarus’ Aliaksandr Linnik of 20.64.
The riposte from Greece’s Likourgos-Stefanos Tsakonas in semi-final two was 20.57, also a personal best with the locals cheering themselves hoarse for Pavel Maslak’s 20.66PB to qualify as runner-up.
Ivan Tukhtachev of Russia controlled the first heat of the 1500m with aplomb, always in the lead pack and going to the front with 250 to go, crossing the line while throttling back for 3:41.37. Season’s fastest, Florian Carvalho of France, was an untroubled third.
With no one prepared to take the pace in the second heat, Jeroen D’Hoedt of Belgium decided it was best to avoid a last-lap rush and did duty at the front. The tactic paid off and he crossed the line in an untroubled 3:46.07, Russian second-string, Marc Tolstikhin, rushing through for second.
With Teddy Tamgho absent from the morning triple jump qualifiers, Ukraine’s Sheryf El-Sheryf led the field on 16.45. Defending champion, Daniele Greco of Italy, qualified in fifth with his first jump of 16.24.
Discus qualification saw Laurence Okoye of Great Britain go furthest with 59.97 followed by Daniel Jasinski and Gordon Wolf of Germany. Second on paper this year.Brett Morse of Great Britain, failed to register a valid mark even though two of his attempts landed on the qualification line.
Only two men went over the regulation 72m-benchmark in the hammer, Pawel Fajdek of Poland and Siarhei Kalamoyets of Belarus, 74.33 and 72.95 respectively. Six others exceeded 70m led by Spain’s Javier Cienfuegos.
Jamie Bowie brought the Great Britain quartet home well clear in the first semi-final of the 4x400m in 3:06.77, over a second ahead of Russia with Spain in the final automatic qualifying spot.
Germany and Poland were both faster in the second semi-final, 3:05.69 to 3:05.96 with France a distant third.
Sweden’s Moa Hjelmer reduced her PB from yesterday by 0.42 to take the first semi-final of the 200m in 20.20. The Dutch duo of Marit Dopheide and Anouk Hagen were the other qualifiers with 100m winner, Andreea Ograzeanu of Romania, looking tired from her efforts of the previous day.
100m silver, Darya Pizhankova of Ukraine, dominated the second heat in 23.26, pursued by Poland’s Anna Kielbasinksa. Third was Netherlands’ Kadene Vassell, ensuring three Dutch women in the final, all setting PBs in the semis.
Yelena Arzhakova knows no other way to run than at the front and that’s how she approached the first heat of the 1500m. Taking over after one lap she plugged away at the front dragging eight PBs out of the following pack. It was only with 200m to go that Türkiye’s Tugba Kartakaya got in front but the Russian European indoor champion was on her shoulder as they crossed the line in a nifty 4:08.63 considering it was only ten o’clock in the morning.
The second heat was much slower than the first – seven seconds with 600m to go – so once the top four got away, qualification was never in doubt for them. First to cross the line was Elina Sujew of Germany, twin sister of Diana who qualified in the first heat. Season leader, Stacey Smith of Great Britain, was comfortable in third.
In the long jump, Darya Klishina of Russia, made the qualifying benchmark of 6.45 look pedestrian when she leapt to a season’s best 6.81, 38cm further than anyone else.
Yana Maksimava got her heptathlon campaign off to a flying start, establishing a personal best in the 100m hurdles of 13.99 and stealing a march on arch-rival, Alina Fydorova of Ukraine, who was a distant second in her heat.
Fastest at this stage, though, and leader was Grit Sadeiko of Estonia in 13.68, but with her left thigh heavily strapped there must be some doubt as to whether she will complete the two days.
From sixth after the hurdles, the Netherlands’ Nadine Boersen swept into the overall lead with a 1.87PB in the high jump accumulating a total of 2031. The Czech Republic’s Katerina Cachova lay in the silver medal position 43 points adrift while Russia’s Anastasiya Belyakova celebrated two PBs in the high jump to end the morning in bronze a further nine points down.