The Road to Kaunas – How the women’s class of 2001 fared as seniors – European Athletics (EAA) – NEWS

Continuing our countdown to a packed summer, we take a look at what happened to the women's class of 2001, who took part in the European Athletics U23 Championships in Amsterdam.

Women's sprints and hurdles
German Sina Schielke, who had been an outstanding junior, maintained her progression in the under-23 age group by winning gold and silver in the 100m and 200m, respectively, in Amsterdam. However, Schielke has since been plagued by injury problems and despite winning a 4x100m silver medal at the 2002 European Championships she has not yet fulfilled her promising talent. Her lifetime best for 100m is 11.16 and she has posted an excellent 7.19 for 60m indoors.

Finland's Johanna Manninen pipped Schielke to gold in the 200m – she has been a consistent force and recorded a personal best of 11.27 for the 100m when winning the European Cup First League in 2007.

Great Britain's Abi Oyepitan took the silver medal behind Schielke in the short sprint and reached the Olympic 200m final in Athens – the first time an Englishwoman had reached an Olympic sprint final since Kathy Cook 24 years previously. A stress fracture has hampered her progress since.

Antonia Yefremova of the Ukraine bagged gold in the 400m in Amsterdam and went on to win the gold medal at the 2002 European Cup. Helen Karagounis of Great Britain took the silver behind Yefremova in Holland and two years later went one better to take the European Under-23 title in Bydgoszcz.

The twin sisters Susanna and Jenny Kallur took a Swedish one-two in the 100m hurdles and both have thrived in the international arena. Susanna is the reigning European indoor 60m hurdles and European outdoor 100m hurdles champion and boasts a world-class best time of 12.52. Jenny has not quite enjoyed the same level of success but won a silver medal behind her younger sister at the 2005 European Indoor Championships in Madrid. In 2008 Susanna eclipsed the World indoor record for the 60m hurdles with a time of 7.68sec. Fancied to take a medal in Beijing, she fell at the first hurdle in the semis. Both sisters have since suffered stress fractures that have stalled their careers.

Endurance
The 1500m gold medallist Alesya Turova reinvented herself as a world class steeplechaser. The Belarussian took a European indoor bronze medal for the metric mile in 2002 but later that year broke the world record for the 2000m steeplechase and in 2006 enjoyed her most successful season, winning the European 3000m steeplechase gold in Gothenburg.

Runner-up behind Turova, Natalia Rodriguez of Spain, lifted European Cup gold in 2003 and twice finished in the top six in the 1500m at the World Championships. This winter she scooped silver at the European indoor championships in Torino.

Anna Zagorska of Poland took the 800m title in Amsterdam, recorded a lifetime best time of 2:00.04 in 2004 but has raced sparingly since.

The 5000m title was retained by talented junior Katalin Szentgyorgyi, who had won the European Junior title for the distance back in 1997. However, unfortunately her career did not kick on and her last recorded result came in 2004.

Olga Romanova landed the 10,000m title and the Russian is now a regular on the US road race circuit with a best of 33:46 for 10km from 2006. The versatile Sabrine Mockenhaupt won bronze behind Romanova and boasted her best season in 2005 taking the European indoor 3000m bronze medal and finishing second behind reigning world cross country champion Lornah Kiplagat at the European Cross Country Championships. She was 13th in last summer's Olympic Games in a fine 31:14.21.

Another German, Melanie Schulz, captured the inaugural women's 3000m steeplechase gold medal in Amsterdam and went on to run a highly respectable 9:38.31.

Field
Spanish high jumper Ruth Beitia struck gold in Amsterdam is now a thriving international performer who won two European indoor silvers and world and European indoor bronze medals between 2005 and 2009. The joint silver medallist behind Beitia Marina Kuptsova of Russia has also snared major championship medals with European silver in 2002 and world silver the following year.

The three pole vault medallists in Amsterdam have all gone on to a varied degree of success. Monika Pyrek of Poland finished top of the pile in Amsterdam and is the current European and world silver medallist. In 2008 she added World indoor bronze to match the medal she won in 2003. For German Annika Becker, the silver medallist behind Pyrek, she took a World Championships silver medal in 2003 but has since switched to the long jump with a best of 6.35m. Becker's countrywoman Caroline Hingst took the bronze in Holland and after as couple of years in the doldrums she cleared a personal best of 4.70m during the 2007 indoor season.

Jade Johnson, the long jump winner at the 2001 European Under-23 Championships, pocketed silver medals at the European Championships and Commonwealth Games in 2002 but her progress has been stalled by injury problems.

The silver medallist Concepcion Montaner has only more latterly realised her promise, jumping a lifetime best of 6.92m in 2005 and winning a silver medal at the European Indoor Championships in Birmingham 2007.

Irina Vasilyeya took the triple jump gold medal in Amsterdam and jumped a top-drawer 14.57m later that year. Eight years ago Nadzeya Ostapchuk bagged the European Under-23 shot title and then developed into a world-class performer. The Belarus athlete won the European indoor and World outdoor gold medals and threw 21.09m in 2005 and in 2006 collected silver at the European Championships. At the Osaka Worlds she clinched silver and in the 2008 World indoors she made it yet another silver to add to those from 2001 and 2003.

The French took double gold with victory in the discus and hammer courtesy of Melina Robert-Michon and Manuela Montebrun respectively. Montebrun is the 2002 European Championships and 2003 World Championships bronze medallist and Robert-Michon lifted European Cup silver in 2003.

The javelin title went to Nikolett Szabo of Hungary, who had earlier taken European junior gold medals in 1997 and 1999.

rigaudo.jpg
Elise Rigaudo, the 20km race walker from Italy,
went on to win a bronze at the Beijing Olympic
Games.
Combined events
Liga Klavinas lifted heptathlon gold but the Latvian has never bettered the mark of 6279 points she recorded in Amsterdam. The only marks she has recorded since 2003 have come in the shot put. The Russian Svetlana Sokolova recorded a lifetime best of 6591 in 2004 and finished tenth at the Olympic Games but since 2004 then she has not come close to breaking the 6000 points barrier. The bronze medallist in Amsterdam, Austra Skujyte of Lithuania, developed into a world-class act winning the Olympic silver medal behind Carolina Kluft in Athens, the year she also claimed World indoor bronze.

Walks
Italy struck gold in the 20km walk through Italian Elise Rigaudo and she went on to win a bronze medal over the distance at the 2006 European Championships and topped that last year with a fine bronze at the Olympics. The gold medal in Gothenburg 2006, however, went to Ryta Turova, the woman who finished second behind Rigaudo in Amsterdam and younger sister of Alesya, the reigning European steeplechase champion. Ryta also took World Championship silver in 2005.

 European Athletics (EAA) – NEWS