European Athletics (EA) – News – Broersen comes of age in Gotzis

Dutch star Nadine Broersen took a giant step from her 13th place at last summer’s Olympic Games to fly the flag for Europe at the Hypo-Meeting in Gotzis.

On a weekend where Canadian athletes won the decathlon with Damian Warner and heptathlon with Brianne Theisen, Broersen produced the best performance of her career.

Broersen made a superb climb into the top three on the second day, ending with 6345 points, improving her best from the Olympics of 6319, as Theisen won with 6376.

It was a fabulous weekend for the Dutch women as Dafne Schippers was third with 6287 but not such a great time for their teammate Eelco Sintnicolaas.

The heptathlon gold medallist from the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Göteborg failed to complete the decathlon after he did not start the last discipline, the 1500m.

European athletes were left chasing the two Canadians after the opening day.

In the heptathlon, Theisen ended with an overnight lead of 3816 from Schippers with 3811 and the Ukraine’s Hanna Melynchenko third with 3740.

Schippers knew she had to start day two well and not lose momentum and she delivered in style to take the overall lead.

With a leap of 6.56m in the long jump – and the benefit of +2.3 headwind – Schippers scored 1027 points.

The event signalled the start of Tatyana Chernova’s comeback after her disappointing opening day which ended with her in seventh place.

It is impossible to put a world champion down, let alone think there would be no route for recovery, the Russian responded with a brilliant 6.57m to win the event with 1030 points and move into fifth with 4663.
At this stage Schippers led with 4838 from Theisen with 4788. Germany’s Kira Biesenbach was third with 4691 and Ukraine’s Hanna Melnychenko was fourth with 4670.

But once more it all changed in the penultimate event with Theisen moving back in front as she capitalised on throwing further than Schippers even though she did not win it.

It was at this stage that Broersen joined the party – with her outstanding 52.37m bringing her 906 points that took her into second place overall with 5496 as Theisen held on to the lead, by just 16 points, as her 42.95m equated to 724 to lead with 5512.

Schippers dropped back into third with 5462 as she scored only 624 with a best of 37.72m with Chernova edging closer as she moved into fourth with a throw of 45.45m.

But in the end it was a lead that was enough for the Canadian.

Her 864 points as she crossed the line in 2:17.02 were enough as Broersen scored 849 with 2:18.17 with the 825 from Schippers for 2:19.90 to secure her third place in the competition with 6287, beating Chernova who was fourth with 6284.

In the decathlon, Warner had led overnight by just 96 points from Germany’s Kai Kazmirek with American Gunnar Nixon third with 4239.

The men returned on the second day for the 110m hurdles and the Europeans bid for glory became even tougher as Warner extended his lead with victory in 13.92 in his heat and the quickest of all the 21 athletes who started.

His now had 5325 points from Nixon with 5144 and Brazil’s Carlos Chinin with 5118 but Adam Sebastian Helcelet, of the Czech Republic, moved into fifth with 930 points from the discipline as he ran 14.35.

Belarusian Eduard Mikhan made his bid for glory after the seventh event, the discus, by produced a throw of 47.71m to score 823 points and move into third place overall with 5855 from Warner in 6051 and Chinin with 5896.

Helecelet slipped back to sixth, with a best of 40.95m, with Kazmirek seventh with 5746 after a throw of 38.22m.

Sintnicolaas finally delivered in the pole vault, producing the top performance by clearing 5.06m to win the event and move into eighth place with 6555 with two events to go.

But the European challenge was slipping by with Mikhan now back in his fifth with 6608 after a vault of 4.56m.

Warner led with 6829 from Chinin with 6764 and Canada’s Massimo Bertocchi with 6666.

But in an event where the positions behind Warner kept changing, Helcelet moved into third after the penultimate event as his javelin landed 64.11m while Warner’s 62.84m stretched his lead to 7610 from Chinin with 7447 with Mikhan now back in sixth with 7258, Germany’s Norman Muller in seventh with 7226 and then Sintnicolaas with 7207.

It was lead that Warner extended right to the end as he won the title with 8307 as the European athletes could not break into the top three with Chinin second with 8182 and Nixon third with 8136.

Helecelet ended in fourth with a fine 8075 followed by Mikhan with 7975 and Muller with 7960. As Sintnicolaas did not start the final event, he did not register a final score.

 

European Athletics (EA) – News