Some of the biggest names of the 33rd European Indoor Athletics Championships made their first appearance at Prague’s 02 Arena this morning.
None bigger – in the eyes of the rawcous Czech fans, at least – than local hero Pavel Maslak who began his defence of the men’s 400m title under a cascade of thunderous noise which descended from the packed upper tier tucked under the domed roof of the stadium high above the track.
Maslak said yesterday he expects to win gold with ease in the final on Saturday, and you can hardly doubt him. Winning has become a habit to this 24-year-old in recent years, his victory at the 2012 European Championships in Helsinki swiftly followed by the Gothenburg indoor title two years ago and the world indoor crown in Sopot last March.
But inury forced him out of the European outdoors in Zürich last summer and so he has special motivation – the roaring home crowd aside – to want the title this time.
He’ll certainly take some stopping, for Maslak clocked a world leading time of 45.27 seconds to claim the Czech title in this stadium two weeks ago, his sixth win in six races in 2015.
He didn’t need to produce that sort of speed this morning, a nonchalant 47.23 enough to see him into this afternooon’s semifinals.
Wearing patriot blue and red arm bands, he was given the biggest of big build-ups by the announcers, his name – “the one and only…” – read out over thumping background music and an formidable whirr of cheers.
It would have been easy to get carried away, but Maslak is too experienced for that. He controlled his emotions well, and controlled the race superbly, taking the lead just after the bell and easing home with a glance over his shoulder, a gold necklace bouncing on his chest.
“That was a calm run,” he said afterwards before referring to his teammates. “I am happy that Patrik Sorm made it to the semifinals and hopefully Jan Tesar will be successful as well. It would be great if each of us was in a semifinal.”
Tesar subsequently did get through, his and Sorm’s performances greeted with the same rapturous appreciation reserved for all the local heroes by the flag-waving fans.
And there was no hero more local this morning than Dukla Prague athlete Petr Svoboda, the sprint hurdles champion from Paris four years ago who enjoyed every second of his opening heat this morning.
The crop-haired 30-year-old sported the widest of wide grins when he was introduced to the crowd, and punched his fist in the air repeatedly to acknowledge their cheers.
He did so again after the race, blowing kisses high into the rafters after finishing third in his 60m hurdles race in 7.66 – his best of the year – as Frenchman Pascal Martinot-Lagarde clocked 7.58, the fastest of the round.
“Big thanks to the spectators, the crowd is awesome,” said Svoboda. “The more noise I hear from the fans the better I will perform.”
There seems little doubt he’ll get his wish.
There was less good cheer for another Dukla Prague athlete, however, as world 400m hurdles champion Zuzana Hejnova failed to advance in the 800m, an event which featured yet another national record for the phenomenal 19-year-old Aníta Hinriksdóttir.
The wide-armed Icelander adopted her usual front-running tactics to clock 2:01.56, improving the European junior record she set a month ago.
Hejnova wished she’d done the same after she came adrift in a slow race and was left to rue her decision to choose the four-lap event over the more familiar 400m.
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At least Denisa Rosolova was there to carry the hosts’ hopes, and home crowd support carried her through to this afternoon’s semifinals as fifth fastest.
“I hope that they are going to push me forward in the semifinals,” she said. “My ambitions are as high as can be.”
Other high ambitions were achieved over in the pentathlon high jump where Katarina Johnson-Thompson cleared a championship best for the event of 1.95m after running a hurdles PB of 8.18m in the first event of the day.
We're done in the SP. The top 3 after the HJ performed well - KJT with a SB, @morgan_a_lake a PB 13.91 & @thiam_nafi a PB 14.80
— Praha 2015 (@Euro_Indoors) March 6, 2015
The Briton went on to throw 12.32m in the shot for a total of 2941 points, 35 behind Belgium’s Nafissatou Thiam with the long jump and 800m to come, but within touching distance of Natalya Dobrynska’s world record of 5013.
She may not be Czech, but that really would be reason to make some noise.
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