2013

Mo Farah delighted the Gateshead crowd with victory in the men's 5000m at the European Athletics Team Championships on Saturday. ©EAA - European Athletics

European Athletics (EA) – News – Obergfoll is the best on her own as Germany take command

Ergebnisse

By GRR 0

The rain stayed away, the fans came out in their thousands, and Germany, the team that reigned the first time the European Athletics Team Championships took place in 2009, are in charge after the opening day in Gateshead.

Check out the in-depth event-by-event reports here.

The fourth staging of this event produced a series of outstanding performances and in the end left the story to have its final twist in the last two events.

Russia had led the table. They have won this top division on the last two occasions, taking the mantle away from Germany.

But then the athlete who is now the greatest in the history of the event delivered.

Christina Obergfoll had spoken 24 hours earlier about how she hoped her country would win the title again. And her hopes could become reality on Sunday, with her playing no small part.

Germany have ended this opening day with 195 points from Russia with 194 and Great Britain third with 181.

But Obergfoll's victory in the javelin and the German men's sprint relay second brought a crucial 23 points.

Obergfoll and Dai Greene had entered the event as the only two athletes to have won at all three previous European Athletics Team Championships.

But Greene, the world 400m hurdles champion, saw his record go in the first track event when he was beaten into second place by Germany's Silvio Schirrmeister who won in 49.15.

He beat Greene by 0.24 but over three hours later it was Schirrmeister's teammate Obergfoll who was celebrating.

She did not have an easy afternoon as Spain's Mercedes Chilla had led the competition from the first round when she threw 58.55m.

Obergfoll had a best of 55.82m which she then improved to 58.30m in the second round before her winning effort of 62.64m.

And as she was in charge, Russia's world champion Mariya Abakumova was back in fourth with 57.09m.

It meant 12 points for Germany and eight for Russia and for Obergfoll, delight at the victory.

She said: "It wasn't the best competition for me but I kept my head throughout all of it and my best throw came in the last round.

"It was really tough conditions and there was a huge headwind, so that was difficult to deal with.

"I cannot believe how great the crowd was."

After the brillaint run by Schirrmeister, the first of Germany's three wins – the second was by David Storl in the shot put.

After finishing behind Tomasz Majewski at last summer's Olympic Games in London, Storl reversed the positions to retain his title at the European Athletics Team Championships.

He took the 12 points with 20.47m from Majewski with 20.29m.

But Olympic champion Majewksi then set the tone for the World Championships in August when he said: "David won today but we will wait and see what happens in Moscow."

The home crowd came to see their Olympic heroes and while Greg Rutherfod finished third in the long jump with 8.02m as Russia's Alexander Menkov won with 8.36m, the full house of 12,000 at Gateshead would have left talking about 50.89 seconds of brilliance from Mo Farah, the Olympic and double European 5000m champion.

All the runners were bunched together as the race reached the bell but then Farah just showed how he is in a class of his own.

He moved his head down and was off, storming away with an injection of pace that even by his brilliant standards was breathtaking.

He was just gone in a flash and won by almost three seconds in 14:10.00 from France's Tahri Bouabdellah in 14:12.91.

"The finish was good," said Farah, which was something of an understatement.

"That's what I have been working on – my speed. We planned that.

"I feel alright. I am back to normal training which is great and the aim is to keep training towards Moscow."

After her double gold medal-winning performance at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Göteborg in March, Perri Shakes-Drayton triumphed again with another superb 400m run.

The British team captain soared to the quickest time by a European this year as she won in 50.50.

And in the 100m, as Ukraine remain in the top six, Olesya Povh soared to victory in 11.51 – before then helping her teammates win the 4 x 100m relay in 42.62, a European lead.

Great Britain's men ended the first day with victory in 38.39, but that 4 x 100m relay was all about the placings for the overall picture.

Germany, anchored by Martin Keller, finished second in 38.69 for 11 points while Russia were back in seventh from the two races and picked up only six points, leaving the Germans to be the team who could sleep slightly better overnight.

National Team standings after Day 1
1. Germany 195 points
2. Russia 194
3. Great Britain and N.I. 181
4. Poland 166
5. France 164.5
6. Ukraine 160.5
7. Spain 123.5
8. Italy 123
9. Turkey 102
10. Greece 76
11. Belarus 75.5
12. Norway 67

The full detail of the standings of the Gateshead 2013 event can be found here.

Video interviews with athletes during Day 1 of the competition will be uploaded here.

Follow the event on Twitter at @Euro_Team.

European Athletics (EA) – News

author: GRR