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| Krzysztof Brzozowski of Poland, with a throw of 19.55m, was the best among shot put qualifiers on Thursday morning. |
Russia’s Yelena Lashmanova got the 21st European Athletics Junior Championships underway with a bang this morning as she walked to a world junior record of 42:59.48 to add the European title to the world junior crown she picked up 12 months ago.
Lashmanova’s victory never looked in doubt as she led from start to finish in Tallinn’s Kadriorg Stadium while teammates Svetlana Vasileva, second in 44:52.98, and Anna Ermin, third in a personal best 46:49.00, completed a Russian clean sweep.
“I’m really happy to win with a record,” said Lashmanova who broke her personal best by more than 40 seconds on a steamy first morning in the Estonian capital, and sliced nearly 12 seconds from Vera Sokolova’s European and championships record from Kaunas four years ago.
“I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the numbers on the board. It was really hard to perform in such weather conditions. Russia got its triple and we are really happy with our results.”
Heptathlete Dafne Schippers also looked in brilliant form at the start of her two-day competition, but triumph turned to failure when the world junior champion followed a stunning personal best of 13.27 in the opening 100m hurdles with a disappointing high jump to leave her back in sixth overall after two events.
Despite a start she described as “not my best”, Schippers unleashed a hurdles performance that was a tenth quicker than her previous PB, good enough for a Dutch junior record and third on the Dutch senior lists.
But she lost concentration in event two and could only clear 1.63, 11cm below her PB and worth just 771 points. That allowed Katrina Johnson-Thompson to move into the lead with 2006 points, 151 ahead of the Dutch star, after the Briton leapt a personal best 1.84.
Sprint star Jodie Wiliams will be pleased Schippers opted not to contest the 100m where she would have been a significant rival. The world junior champion cruised to an easy win in the first round of the women’s 100m and goes into this afternoon’s semi-finals as the fastest qualifier.
The Briton was quickly out of her blocks in heat two and moved smoothly through the phases before easing down in the later stages to clock 11.55. “I had a great race. The conditions here for running are perfect,” said Williams.
Another Dutchwoman, Jamile Samuel, is set to be her closest rival after winning heat three in 11.67.
Marcell Deák Nagy was another world junior champion who kicked off his campaign for European gold in impressive fashion. The Hungarian record holder clocked an easy 47.05 in the opening heat of the men’s 400m.
That proved to be the quickest of the round, while Michele Tricca was second fastest going into this afternoon’s semi-finals. The Italian won heat two in 47.28, while his compatriot Maroco Lorenzi was an easy heat four winner in 47.43. Russia’s Nikita Uglov also went through, winning heat three in 47.62.
Poland’s Krzysztof Brzozowski was the best of the shot qualifiers with 19.55 but Italy’s Daniele Secci, who shares the event lead this year, struggled through with a best of just 18.61, a full two metres short of his season’s best.
Austria’s Lukas Wesshaldinger and Frenchman Frederic Dagee were among the five automatic qualifiers with 19.48 and 19.44 respectively.
Leading hammer contenders Quentin Bigot of France, Spain’s José Pedro Martín and Moldovan record holder Sergiu Marghiev safely qualified for the final with minimum effort. Martin needed two throws to reach 73.20, while Bigot and Marghiev wasted little effort, exceeding the 71.00 qualifying distance with one twirl.
Elias Hakansson was most impressive, however, topping the list with 74.03, a PB by nearly two metres for the unfancied Swede.