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Turner narrowly misses medal again
Claxton equals national record in semi-final before coming last in the 60m hurdles final
THE opening day was a barren one for Britain in terms of medals. Andy Turner finished a gallant fourth in the 60m hurdles final and after Claxton equalled her national record in the semi-final, the Woodford Green athlete placed eighth in the final.
Women’s long jump qualifying
ESTONIA’S Ksenija Balta was the best qualifier. After languishing outside the qualification positions for the first two rounds, Balta improved to 6.75m in the final round, which equates to a national record for the 23-year-old.
Women’s shot put pentathlon
JOLANDA KEIZER narrowed the gap on the overall leader Anna Bogdanova, but both athletes excelled. The 23-year-old Dutchwoman added 33cm to her lifetime best, and her putt of 15.46m was the best of the day, but Bogdanova also set a PB of 14.83.
The Russian’s lead was closed but the Olympic sixth placer moved to 3886-points, whilst Jolanda Keizer pulled ahead of the third placer with a total of 3802-points, which is close to 300-points ahead of the next best athlete.
Men’s high jump qualifying
BOTH Samson Oni and Martyn Bernard failed to make the final in this event. Both athletes only cleared 2.22m, which was way below their respective season’s bests.
Women’s 60m hurdles semi-finals
BRITAIN’S no.1 Sarah Claxton delivered a hugely decisive victory in the second semi-final. The Olympic finalist got out of the blocks very well and drove away from the rest of the field over the second half of the race, equalling her national record of 7.96 to qualify as the fastest for the final. Claxton defeated Belgium’s Eline Berings by 0.05, who was the most impressive qualifier from the heats.
Derval O’Rourke prevailed in a mightily close opening semi-final. Only 0.08 covered the first seven athletes but the former world indoor champion came off the final hurdle strongly to take the win with a time of 8.00.
Men’s 60m hurdles semi-finals
ALLAN SCOTT scraped through to his second successive European indoor final but the 26-year-old was rather fortunate, as he clattered the first hurdle and was out of a qualifying position until the final flight of hurdles, when Germany’s Helge Schwarzer fell. Scott pulled through in third place (7.73), but Yevgeniy Borisov, the pre-race favourite, was the class apart with a 7.60 clocking.
Likewise, Andy Turner scraped through to the final in fourth place from the second semi-final, which was by far the toughest. Fourth in the final in Birmingham, Turner clocked 7.68, to finish behind the Czech Republic’s Petr Svoboda, who set a national record of 7.55.
Women’s long jump pentathlon
BOGDANOVA reasserted herself in the fourth event, having watched her lead diminish somewhat in the third event. Despite not performing up to her recent standards in this event, Bogdanova recorded a best of 6.39m, which was 19cm better than Keizer, who was her closest challenger.
Frenchwoman Antoinette Nana Djimou moved into third with a PB of 6.44m.
Women’s pole vault qualifying
BRITISH record-holder Kate Dennison easily qualified for her first major final with a 4.40m clearance.
Women’s 800m heats
WITH only two athletes to be eliminated, the heats were nothing more than a formality for the top names. UK indoor champion Jenny Meadows controlled her opening heat and the world and Olympic semi-finalist was the fastest qualifier (2:03.11.)
Marilyn Okoro similarly headed to the front in her heat and was an easy qualifier. Okoro allowed Tetyana Petlyuk to overtake her in the final 50m but Okoro took nothing out of herself with a time of 2:05.01.
Men’s 800m heats
FORMER Olympic champion Yuriy Borzakovskiy delivered an imperious performance in the heats and the former champion will be very hard to defeat. The 27-year-old finished very strongly in the final heat, recording 1:48.10.
Women’s shot put final
THE first gold medal of the championships was rewarded to Petra Lammert from Germany in a cracking contest against her team-mate. The German, who celebrated her 25th birthday only two days ago, was not looking in her very best form and very few would have considered her as a true gold medal candidate but the European outdoor bronze medallist was clearly peaking for this competition, as she set a world-lead of 19.66m in the first round, which translated to an indoor PB of 41cm.
Her team-mate Denise Hinrichs, who led qualification with a PB of 19.25m improved her lifetime best again to 19.43m but the breakthrough came in the final round, when a competitive effort by the younger of the two Germans looked to challenge Lammert’s distance but agonisingly for Hinrichs, the effort fell just 3cm short of Lammert’s world-lead, but Germany still had the satisfaction of claiming gold and silver.
For Lammert, this must be some consolation after an elbow injury forced her to miss the majority of last year’s outdoor season.
Women’s 1500m heats
BOTH Susan Scott and Hannah England failed to make the 1500m final. In a messy first heat, the former half-miler found herself in a poor position with 400m remaining and after moving wide on the last lap, Scott was cut off and lost all of her rhythm. Scott was sixth (4:13.40), which was not good enough to make tomorrow’s final.
England did not progress either, as she could not find any turn of pace on the last lap and placed seventh in the second heat (4:14.75), in a race won by the pre-race favourite Anna Alminova (4:11.44.)
Women’s 400m semi-finals
YET again, Antonina Krivoshapka was more than one-second faster than anybody else. At the bell, the Russian had an 8m advantage on the rest of the field and the pre-race favourite lived up to the billing with an easy victory with a 51.59 clocking and Britain will also field a finalist in the shape of veteran Donna Fraser. The UK indoor 200/400m champion allowed Natalya Antyukh to overtake her but the former Olympic finalist pulled through with a 53.59 clocking.
Men’s 400m semi-finals
THERE was great drama in the opening semi-final. After the break from lanes, Poland’s Piotr Klimczak took a tumble after getting tangled up with Britain’s Nick Leavey and on the final turn, the two-time defending champion David Gillick from Ireland fell to the track after being shoved by Romania’s Ioan Vieru.
Buck, who was wallowing at the point, benefited from Gillick’s misfortune to qualify in third 46.76, behind Johan Wissman (46.38) and Vieru (46.61.)
In the second heat, Italy’s Claudio Licciardello eased through with the fastest time of the day of 46.31.
Women’s 800m pentathlon
A victory was virtually assured for Anna Bogdanova. The Russian had approximately a 10-second advantage over Jolanda Keizer and could afford to settle for a slower pace, as Poland’s Karolina Tyminska surged through the opening 400m in 63.92.
Tyminska won the second 800m race in a quick 2:10.69 to move her up to fifth overall but there was no change in the medal positions. Bogdanova, who clocked 2:21.84 in the 800m, amassed a total of 4761-points, ahead of Keizer (4644-points) and Antoinette Nana Djimou (4618-points.)
Whilst Bogdanova’s victory was never in doubt, the occupation of the minor medals went to surprising candidates but the Dutchwoman and the Frenchwoman both set PBs.
Women’s 60m hurdles
MANY must have been wondering whether Belgium would have the ability to win gold medals after the retirement to luminaries such as Kim Gevaert and Tia Hellebaut, who has delivered so many major titles in recent years but Belgium appear to have found a new talent in Eline Berings. The 22-year-old looked confident in the heat and semi-final and was the strongest in the closing stages, as the former European junior champion stormed to a national record and European leading mark of 7.92 to prove that even if Josephine Onyia had been competing, the leading European contender would have been pushed.
Lucie Skrobakova from the Czech Republic won a surprise silver medal in a Czech record of 7.95, whilst Ireland’s Derval O’Rourke scored bronze (7.97.)
The big disappointment was the performance of Sarah Claxton, who succumbed to the pressure in the final. The Brit equalled her national record in the semi-finals and was the only athlete to dip under the eight-second barrier but the 29-year-old had a poor start and made absolutely no impression on the field, trailing in eighth.
Men’s 60m hurdles final
LADJI DOUCOURE regained the title he won in 2005, but the Frenchman was under real pressure from the reigning champion Gregory Sedoc. Running side by side in lanes six and seven, both athletes lunged for the line and the pair looked inseparable but Doucoure instinctively knew he had regained the title. Both athletes recorded 7.55 but the former world champion was given the verdict.
Andy Turner was an agonising fourth yet again. The Commonwealth and European medallist was pipped to the bronze by Petr Svoboda from the Czech Republic, leaving Turner without a medal by the narrowest of margins once again.
Allan Scott was eighth in the final (7.78.)
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