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| British sprint sensation Jodie Williams will be targeting three gold medals at the European Athletics Junior Championships in Tallinn, Estonia. |
Sprint sensation Jodie Williams and pole vault queen Angelica Bengtsson arrive in Tallinn as outstanding favourites for European junior gold, while crowds in the Estonian capital will focus on the javelin where local favourite Liina Laasma seeks a medal.
Sprints and hurdles
There are few clearer favourites in Tallinn than Britain’s teenage sprint sensation Jodie Williams who’s targeting three golds in the Kadriorg Stadium. The 17-year-old came tantalisingly close to adding a first senior medal to her world youth and junior titles when she was fourth at the European indoors earlier this year, and she heads the entrants for both 100m and 200m here.
With a lifetime best of 11.24, Williams has two-tenths to spare over her nearest 100m rival, Dutch junior record holder and world bronze medallist Jamile Samuel, while world junior heptathlon champion Dafne Schippers makes up a two-pronged Dutch threat with her PB of 11.50. Other medal hopes include Ukraine’s Mariya Shmidova, Hungarian record holder Anasztázia Nguyen, and Williams’ teammate Marylyn Nwawulor.
Schippers is also set to challenge Williams in the 200m where the Briton has a best of 22.79. Schippers has been quicker this season with a PB of 22.90 to Williams’ 2011 best of 23.05. These are the only two with sub-23 experience, although Samuel is best of the rest with 23.21 from last year’s world juniors in Moncton where she picked up a second bronze.
Britain will also have hopes in the 400m through Katie Kirk, Kirsten McAslan and Lucy James who have all broken 54s, but Romania’s world junior bronze medallist Bianca R„ƒzor heads the standings thanks to the brilliant 52.56 she ran to win the European Team Championships first league in Izmir last month. Romania aim for a second podium place through Adelina Pastor, while Yulia Yurenya will be full of confidence after running a Belarussian junior record of 53.17 making her second quickest in the field.
Finnish fans have good reason to cross the Gulf to Tallinn thanks to Nooralotta Neziri who heads this year’s sprint hurdles rankings from world junior champion Isabelle Pedersen of Norway. Neziri is in fine form after running a PB of 13.37 only two weeks ago, just 0.7s outside Pedersen’s winning time in Moncton, although Pedersen is out to make amends after finishing second in Novi Sad two years ago.
Russia is set to dominate the 400m hurdles with three women clear at the top of the rankings headed by world junior champion Vera Rudakova who posted a fine PB of 57.10 at the national junior championships on 2 July. Anastasiya Korshunova has also dipped under 58 seconds while Valeriya Khramova is close behind with 58.06.
Endurance
With her national junior record of 2:00.37 Anastasiya Tkuchuk has more than three seconds advantage over her closest 800m rival this year, Britain’s Rowena Cole, and the Ukrainian will be ably backed by her teammate Olha Lyakhovaya. After Mirela Lavric’s victory in 2009, Romania’s 2011 hopes rest with Ioana Doag„ƒ while Ayika Malanova and Svetlana Rogozina present a strong Russian challenge.
Doag„ƒ’s greater hope lies in the 1500m, however, where she heads the field by two seconds from Amela Terzić, the Serbian out to erase the disappointment of failing to medal on home soil two years ago. World silver medallist Ciara Mageean has the quickest PB by more than three seconds, with 4:09.51, but the Irish junior record holder has yet to hit those speeds this year. With high-flying British pair Jessica Judd and Georgie Peel not running, the German trio of Gesa-Felicitas Krause, Lisa Jí¤sert and Lisa Ollesch will all have medal hopes.
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| Russia's Mariya Kuchina will go in as one of the favourites for the high jump gold. |
After picking up three medals in the longer races in 2009 it’s no surprise that Britons feature strongly in the hunt for 3000m and 5000m honours. Emelia Gorecka is the quickest entrant in both events where she is aiming to go one better than Kate Avery and Charlotte Purdue who were second in the 3000m and 5000m respectively two years ago. Terzić looks set to be Gorecka’s closest rival in the shorter race while teammate Annabel Gummow will be breathing down her neck in the 5000m. Russia have left their runaway event leader Alena Kudashkina out of the 3000m line-up but Türkiye’s Esma Aydemir could be a significant threat in both.
Although entered for the 1500m, Krause may well concentrate on the steeplechase where she is the only athlete with sub-10 to her name and has a best this year of 9:52.00, less than five seconds outside the PB she set when finishing fourth in Moncton last summer. Russia will provide the main opposition through Gulshat Fazlitdinova and Yevdokiya Bukina.
Jumps
Mariya Kuchina aims to follow Natalya Mamlina and keep the high jump title in Russian hands. A silver medalist at the world youth championships two years ago, Kuchina won her national junior championships with 1.94 three weeks ago, 3cm higher than Mamlina’s winning jump in Novi Sad. With a 1.90 leap this year, Yekaterina Fedotova has good medal chances too, but world silver medallist Airina Palyste is also coming into form at the right time with her Lithuanian junior record of 1.92.
There’s little doubt Angelica Bengtsson will attract most attention in the pole vault where the Swedish star looks to add the European title to the world junior and youth honours she has garnered over the last two years. Just 18, Bengtsson pushed the Swedish indoor senior record to 4.63 in February, a world junior record to go with her world youth record outdoors of 4.47. With a season’s best of 4.28, she hasn’t quite hit such heights this summer yet, and Russia’s Natalia Demidenko, who’s cleared 4.40, plus Ukrainian junior record holder Hanna Sheleh, are poised to pounce.
Germany’s Lena Malkus is favourite for the long jump having improved her personal best by leaps and bounds to 6.70, 24cm further than her nearest rival, Alina Rotaru of Romania. Without the continent’s second best jumper, Daria Derkach, Ukraine’s hopes rest with Krystyna Hryshustyna while Polina Yurchenko leads Russia’s challenge.
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| Swedish pole vault prodigy Angelica Bengtsson. |
The 2009 world youth champion Yana Borodina heads the triple jump rankings by more than 60cm thanks to her recent 14.35 leap in Moscow. No one else has exceeded 14m but Finland’s Kristiina Mí¤kelí¤ is the closest rival with a best of 13.64 while Ukraine’s Ganna Aleksandrova has also leapt beyond 13.50.
Throws
Germany’s strong tradition in the throws looks in good hands with the likes of Lena Urbaniak leading the shot standings and a trio of Germans at the head of the discus field.
Urbaniak won the world youth title two years ago and she leads the standings this year after throwing 16.65 at the German under 23 championships last month. The only other entrant with 16m form is Russia’s Natalia Troneva who has put 16.17, while Urbaniak’s teammate Kristin Zaumsegel and Viktoria Korzh of Ukraine will also be in the hunt for medals.
Anna Rüh will start as favourite for the discus title after throwing just short of 60m in Dessau on 1 June, more than two metres further than her compatriot Shanice Craft with the third German Kristin Pudenz only a few metres back at 54.15. In the absence of Estonian hope Ellina Anissimova, Viktoriya Klochko will be the Germans’ main threat. The Ukrainian has also reached 54m while Hungary’s Krisztina Váradi is a 50-plus thrower.
Barbara Spiler claimed world junior silver last year and the Slovenian will be looking to go one better in Tallinn after setting a national junior record of 66.55earlier this month. That’s still a metre short of Ukraine’s Anna Skydan, however, while Türkiye’s Kivilcim Kaya and French junior record holder Alexia Sedykh, the Youth Olympic Games champion, have both exceeded 64m. If Sedykh’s name is familiar that’s not surprising – she’s the daughter of hammer legend and world record holder Yuriy Sedykh while her mother is women’s shot record holder Natalya Lisovskaya.
Neighbouring Finland is usually described as the home of the javelin, but in Tallinn it will be home fans who focus on the women’s spear where Liina Laasma carries Estonia’s medal hopes. The national junior record holder is ranked second in the field with 57.82, nearly three metres short of Latvia’s event leader Lina Müze, last year’s world silver medallist and winner of the Riga Cup in June. The Czech Republic’s Irena Sedivá lies third in the rankings, and after Tatjana Jelaca’s rousing win on home soil in 2009, Marija Vučenović will hope to put Serbia on the podium again in 2011.
Multi-events, walks and relays
World champion Dafne Schippers is in form to add the European title to her growing collection after she set a Dutch junior record of 6172 points when finishing an impressive eighth at the Hypo meeting in Götzis at the end of May. The talented athlete is also entered in the 100m, 200m and long jump but the multi-event represents her main hope of gold.
No one else has yet amassed 6000 points for the seven-event discipline although Germany’s Sara Gambetta, the silver medallist behind Schippers in Moncton, is close with a best of 5907 this summer. Other medal hopes include Latvia’s Laura Ikauniece and Hungarian Xénia Kriszán who was seventh at the world juniors.
Russia’s stranglehold over the 10,000m walk looks set to tighten still further in Tallinn, the only question being whether world youth medallist Svetlana Vasilyeva can defeat world junior champion Yelena Lashmanova as she did by a minute at the national championships in Sochi back in February. Vasilyeva has a track best of 42:43, but Lashmanova has had the better of her rival on the roads this year. Russians have won every gold medal at this discipline since it was first contested in 2001 and Russians fill the top seven places in this year’s rankings. Anna Erminova will be their third contestant here with Germany’s Charlyne Czychy the best of the rest.
With Williams in the line-up, Britain ought to be favourites for the 4x100m but their quartet failed to live up to favourite billing in Novi Sad and failed to finish in the Moncton final last year, a record which gives hope to Netherlands and Ukraine in an event that’s notoriously difficult to predict.
Britain have hopes in the 4x400m too but Russia’s strong tradition in this event can’t be ignored. The Russians have won this event at the last six championships although with two individual medal shots Romania could cause an upset.