Home heptathlete Anouk Vetter sent a roar of acclaim through the Olympic stadium with a huge personal best effort of 55.76m in the javelin that left her dancing in delight as it all but sealed gold with just the concluding 800m to go.
The 23-year-old Dutch athlete – seventh at the 2014 European Athletics Championships – thus gave herself a total of 5823 points going into the climactic event, a lead of 198 points over France’s Antoinette Nana Djimou, winner of the last two European titles.
A HUGE PB of 55.76m in the javelin takes @AnoukVetter a step closer to heptathlon glory... #ECH2016 pic.twitter.com/8uR5GuuSiG
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) July 9, 2016
Sofia Ifantidou of Greece won the discipline as she went one better than Vetter with a Championship best of 56.36.
Who is going to stop David Storl winning a third consecutive European shot put title? Well, maybe it will be Poland’s 19-year-old world junior and Olympic Youth champion Konrad Bukowiecki.
Although the German police officer was best qualifier for tomorrow’s final with his opening effort of 20.84, the young Pole – who set a world junior record of 21.14m in Oslo last month - reached 20.65 with his second attempt and the final looks like being between these two.
Number one?
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) July 9, 2016
Is @shotputdevil favourite for shot put after qualifying for the final with 20.84m... #ECH2016 pic.twitter.com/kE8cfnyOQZ
Storl’s attempt to win a hat-trick of world titles was narrowly frustrated by Joe Kovacs of the United States last summer. Now Bukowiecki is seeking to do the same thing in a European context. Watch this space.
Eike Onnen of Germany, who has cleared 2.31 in the high jump this year, and Helsinki 2012 champion Robbie Grabarz of Britain were among the automatic qualifiers for tomorrow’s final with 2.25m.
Britain appear on for a golden finale to these Championships as their men’s and women’s teams comfortably topped the qualifying for tomorrow’s 4x400m finals.
The women’s quartet – which can add former world and Olympic champion Christine Ohuruogu and last night’s individual bronze medallist Anyika Onuora - clocked 3:26.42, with Poland (3:27.72) and Ukraine (3:27.75) the next fastest. The host nation ran a national record of 3:29.18 to get through to the final.
Britain’s men came home in 3:01.63 in the faster of the two heats, with Poland second in 3:02.09 and the Czech Republic third in 3:02.66, with Belgium winning the second heat in 3:03.15.