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| Likourgos-Stefanos Tsakonas of Greece (left) on his way to winning the men's 200m gold in Ostrava on Saturday. |
Likourgos-Stefanos Tsakonas of Greece and James Alaka of Great Britain were expected to battle for the 200m title and in the end it was decided in favour of Tsakonas who handled the headwind better than his rival, winning in a personal best 20.56.
In third was an ecstatic Pavel Maslak who gave the crowd something to celebrate.
“I believed in this victory even if the opponents were so strong,” said the winner.
In a thrilling 400m, Nigel Levine of Great Britain pocketed gold from Ireland’s Brian Gregan with another Briton, Luke Lennon-Ford, getting up for bronze.
“The gold medal was my biggest motivation,” said Levine. “It was not an easy race. Finally, after I was silver two years ago in Kaunas, I took the victory.”
Sindre Boraas made it a distance double for Norway as he loped to 5000m gold in a slow 14:22.69.
Silver went to Britain’s Ross Millington and bronze to 19-year-old Jesper Van Der Wielen of the Netherlands.
In the end it came down to a hell for leather sprint but the Norwegian proved the strongest: “I started to make some position in the group and I think that tactics worked for me.
Sergey Shubenkov took high hurdles gold in 13.56, but only just, from the revelation of the final, Hungary’s Balazs Baji, who slashed almost two tenths of a second off his personal best for a surprise silver just 0.02 behind the Russian.
Bronze was collected by Great Britain’s Laurence Clarke whose dip was superior to unlucky fourth placer, Thomas Delmestre of France, who was given the same time of 13.62.
Off a dramatic final hurdle, Nathan Woodward of Great Britain lost his impetus and 400m hurdles gold to let team-mate, Jack Green, through to win.
Woodward managed to hold on for silver while in a last desperate lunge, Emir Bekric of Serbia took bronze in a national record 49.61.
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| Alina Talay of Belarus sprang a surprise beating Swiss favourite Lisa Urech for the 100m hurdles gold in Ostrava on Saturday. |
The big surprise in the pole vault was the failure of Germany’s Raphael Holzdeppe to make a fist of retaining his title, but that should not detract from Poland’s Pawel Wojciechowski claiming gold with a personal best 5.70.
Silver went to Germany’s Karsten Dilla while bronze was won by Russia’s Dmitriy Zhelyabin.
It can’t get much better than a personal best in the first round of the javelin to win gold but Germany’s Till Wöschler lived the dream.
Throwing eighth in round one, he unleashed the spear to 84.38 and the title was his. He had to wait, of course, but he only took two more throws and sat out the last three rounds.
Silver went to Fatih Avan of Türkiye, 28cm down and bronze to Russia’s Dmitriy Tarabin.
Darya Pizhankova of Ukraine got up at the line to take a closely contested 200m in 23.20, taking gold by just 0.03 from Poland’s Anna Kielbasinska who set a PB for silver.
Bronze went to Sweden’s Moa Hjelmer who had looked so impressive in the morning semis.
Olga Topilskaya of Russia confirmed her favourite status to win the 400m comfortably in a time of 51.45.
Silver went to team-mate Yuliya Terekhova while Germany’s Leena Schmidt took bronze.
From start to finish Alina Talay of Belarus ran the perfectly judged 100m hurdles to take gold in a season’s best 12.91.
Second was the season leader and favourite, Lisa Urech of Switzerland with Cindy Roleder of Germany in bronze.
In the one-lap hurdles, timing her effort to perfection, Anna Yaroshchuk of the Ukraine won gold in a lifetime best 54.77.
Second was fellow Ukrainian and marginal favourite coming into the championships, Hanna Titimets while Meghan Beesley of Great Britain captured bronze.
With the withdrawal of Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal some of the tension went out of 3000m steeplechase with no one to challenge gold medallist Gülcan Mingir of Türkiye except for silver medallist, Jana Sussman of Germany.
Bronze went to a well-judged sprint by Ukraine’s Mariya Shatalova. Mingir’s winning time was 9:47.83.
Esthera Petre won the women’s high jump and equalled the championship record of 1.98. Silver went to Oksana Okuneva of the Ukraine with a 1.94PB. Bronze at the same height and a national record went to Burcu Ayhan of Türkiye.
Hammer gold was won by Bianca Perie of Romania with a championship best performance of 71.59.
Silver went to Poland’s Joanna Fiodorow while bronze was captured by Britain’s Sophie Hitchon.
Germany’s Sarah Meyer threatened the lead with her second throw, but finally got the job done in round five with a winning and personal best 59.29. She came into the competition with 55.61!
Silver went to the Ukraine’s Vera Rebryk with her first throw of the competition of 58.95 while bronze was claimed by Finland’s Oona Sormunen.
It is tight at the top of the heptathlon which is being led by the Czech Republic’s Katerina Cachanova on 3617 points, two points ahead of Belarus’ Yana Maksimava with Estonia’s Grit Sadeiko a further 15 points adrift.