With a last lap of 59.36, Spain’s Gabriel Navarro took 10000m gold in 29:43.22 from Romania’s Nicolae Soare and Denmark’s Abdi Ulad on Thursday evening in Tampere, Finland. So the double European junior champion from 2011 becomes the new 2013 European U23 champion.
Watch video interviews with athletes competing on the 1st day here.
The race was marred however by a fall by the season’s fastest man in the field, Mats Lunders of Belgium, with five laps to go, seemingly pushed in the back by Ulad as he jostled for position.
It was at that point that Navarro injected a 67-second lap to break up the sequence of 71-second laps and the race was on but without Lunders who made a brave bid to get back on terms but to no avail as he had nothing left when the racing started.
With 600m to go it was down to the three medallists and Ireland’s Shane Quinn and it was the Irishman who had to let go first as Navarro and Ulad sprinted shoulder to shoulder for 400m until the Dane ran out of steam and Soare came past to make his bid.
Though visibly struggling, Navarro held on gamely to win by half a second from the Romanian with Ulad a further second back. A dejected Lunders finally finished eighth.
Szyszkowski snatches gold at the death
With one final cliffhanging push, Poland’s Jakub Szyszkowski claimed shot put gold with a last gasp heave of 19.78 to reverse the charges on fellow countryman Dominik Witczak by 15cm. Bronze went to Belarussian Mikhail Abramchuk.
Round one saw a mano a mano between Abramchuk and Briton Zane Duquemin with the Briton improving his lifetime best by 9cm to match the Belarussian’s 19.19.
In round three Witczak came to life with a 19.33PB to shoot into the leader’s slot. But that was immediately trumped by Szyszkowski whose implement landed at 19.48.
At this stage Finnish hope Arttu Kangas just managed to claim the final three throws with a 18.24 after fouling twice.
Given a lifeline Kangas and now throwing first the Finn then proceeded to set a lifetime best of 18.94 with his next effort to move into fifth.
With the final throw of round four Szyszkowski improved by 1cm to consolidate.
The first change in round five was Abramchuk coming within a precarious 7cm of gold to dislodge Witczak from silver medal position.
But the Pole responded immediately with 19.63 to move into gold and Abramchuk was back in bronze.
With Witczak fouling with his final effort the chance was there for Szyszkowski throwing last to claim gold and from somewhere he found the reserves to snatch back the initiative.
Tobais emerges to challenge Gemili
Briton Adam Gemili, as expected, went through to tomorrow’s final with a season’s best 10.18, bettering his previous benchmark this season from the Ostrava Golden Spike meeting by 0.01 into a 0.5 headwind.
Just as impressive in semi-final two was team-mate Deji Tobais who set a lifetime best of 10.27 into a 1.1mps headwind, putting him close to Gemili in real time. With Samuel Osewa also qualifying Britain will have three representatives in the final.
At 10.20 the national record holder and one of the favourites for a medal here, Dario Horvat of Croatia, only squeezed through as one of the two fastest losers with 10.55.
Russia are looking at two 400m medals as Lev Mosin qualified fastest with 46.20 and Nikita Uglov recording 46.35. The two were only split by a lifetime best 46.26 by the Netherland’s Juergen Wielart in heat two. Fourth fastest overall was Briton Richard Morrissey who clocked a fine 46.57PB.
Ambroise Bosse outsprinted
It was assumed that Pierre Ambroise Bosse would wrap up 800m qualification with ease, but they say the slow races are the most difficult and Bosse certainly made life hard for himself by allowing himself to be passed with 200m to go, almost tripping then finding himself involved in a home straight fight for survival where he was outgunned by Ukrainian Taras Bybek who clocked a lifetime best 1:47.63.
Fortunately the first two qualified by right so the Frenchman was safe, but without a Diamond League pacemaker he seemed ill at ease.
In the other two heats Pierre Antoine Balhan of Belgium was given the nod by 0.01 in a close finish with Germany’s Andreas Lange while Alejandro Estévez of Spain stayed clear of the pack to secure his place in tomorrow’s final without causing any complications.
And with one bound he was free to go. Spain’s Eusebio Caceres required just one effort of 8.08 in the Long Jump before he left the stadium to prepare for tomorrow’s final. Russian Sergei Morgunov was second best on the day with 7.84 while Dino Pervan of Croatia was just 1cm down on the Russian.
Andrius Gudzius of Lithuania was one of only two qualifiers by right in the Discus, the other being Viktor Butenko of Russia. Gudzius hit 60.50 with his first throw, exactly 1m over the qualifying tape while Butenko’s implement was measured at 59.98.
France’s Lolassonn Djouhan was third best with 58.73. Britain’s Zane Duquemin, who was to finish fourth in the Shot final later with a personal best, was fifth qualifier here with 58.19.
Kazmirek looking good for gold
At the half way point in the Decathlon Germany’s Kai Kazmirek looks unassailable with 4358 points, an advantage of 171 points over second placed Ilya Shkurenyov of Russia with the Czech Republic’s Adam Helcelet only 2points in arrears of the Russian. The only doubt is that the Russian’s second day is strong, but is it good enough to overtake the German?
In the first event of the afternoon Kazmirek consolidated his morning lead with a 2.07 clearance in the High Jump to forge a clear 69-point gap over second placed Helcelet.
Shkurenyov moved into third with the same 2.04 clearance as the Czech.
The German gave his all in the 400m to clock a season’s best 46.98 for 959 points while Helcelet slipped to third by finishing fifth overall in 49.22. It was Shkurenyov who was to capitalise by setting a lifetime best in his heat of 48.78 to move into silver.
Schippers a sure bet
Only a false start can deprive the Netherlands Dafne Schippers of gold tomorrow as she was clearly superior to her rivals in this evening’s semis. The only doubt is who will claim silver since this year’s Jodie Williams’ model is clearly not what we are used to after that horrendous hamstring injury in last year’s Olympic trials.
Tatyana Lofamakanda Pinto of Germany, who holds a faster time than the Briton this year, held her off for most of the race before Williams forced her way past. Schippers got away to a tentative start, but still clocked an impressive 11.30 into a 1.5mps headwind.
Second, but a long way behind was Switzerland’s Mujingo Kambunji in 11.69. It was neck and neck for Williams in the second semi, but she squeezed past Pinto in the final 30m to cross the line easing up in 11.44, 0.03 faster than the German into a marginal headwind.
Justina Swiety of Poland was fastest of the 400m qualifiers with a personal best 52.27 ahead of Mirela Lavric’s season’s best 52.45. Third on times was the Netherlands Madiea Ghafoor, but it is maybe France’s Lenora Guion Firmin who could be a danger to all of them.
Despite running in lane eight, she ran a finely judged race to record 52.80. Fastest in the field with a PB of 51.97 she appeared to have a lot left to draw on and runs in a manner very reminiscent of one Marie Jo Perec.
Mirela Lavric of Serbia was fastest of the 800m qualifiers, benefitting from some committed running from Russia’s Ayvika Malanova in the third and final heat.
The first two heats were won impressively by the Ukrainian duo of Anastasiya Tkachuk and Olha Lyakhova. Tkachuk led from gun to tape crossing the line in 2:03.97, running a negative split of 60.71 after a 63.3 opening.
Lyakhova employed the same tactics running a slightly faster first lap but still coming home with a 60.99 final tour of the track. Malanova was fastest of all three heats to the bell which she reached in 61:27, but she was run out of qualifying by right in the final straight as Lavric and Joanna Jozwik of Poland fought past her.
Since the Russian had ensured this was the fastest heat she secured her place in tomorrow’s final on times.
Bulgaria’s Gabriela Petrova went furthest with 13.57 in the Triple Jump to be the only athlete to qualify by right. She was followed by Italy’s Darya Derkach 20cm in arrears and the Ukraine’s Hanna Alexandrova a further 2cm down.