European Athletics – (EA) – News – Gemili takes aim at Tampere title while Maslak looks to hone his speed

The athletes press conference took place this afternoon just before the first medals were decided in the Walks at the Tampere 2013 European Athletics U23 Championships.

Watch video interviews here of the athletes from the press conference.

In World Championship year, British sprint star Adam Gemili has made the European Athletics U23 Championships his main aim for the season in much the same way as he made the World Junior Championships his main aim last year.

The fact that he went on to compete in the London Olympics after world junior gold was a bonus and he is looking for more of the same from Tampere: “I am confident, I ran a great time in Ostrava recently (10.19SB) and I hope to do well here and then go on to the World Championships.”

Gemili competes in the 100m, 200m and the relay in Tampere and is clearly confident he can do well in all three: “As long as I can go out there and execute well then I am happy I can do well in all three races,” he said.

Sitting alongside him was Pavel Maslak, double European 400m champion indoors and out who took bronze at this distance in Ostrava and is hoping for much more here: “I decided to run the 200m here because I think I have done enough 400m races and I will be running that distance in Moscow. I need to improve my speed and I think it is a good idea to run 200m.”

So far this season Gemili is 0.37 faster than Maslak, so the Czech has got a challenge on his hands.

Javelin thrower Sanni Utriainen, who hails from Tampere, is not worried about the pressure she must feel coming from a javelin mad country and competing in front of a home crowd: “I was fourth last time in Ostrava even though I was injured so obviously I want to improve on that and my goal is to win,” she said.

But what about the pressure of a Finn competing in Finland? “The biggest pressure comes from yourself and I can always take the pressure,” insisted Utriainen who is currently ranked sixth on the season’s rankings.

Finnish Shot Putter Artto Kangas recently achieved a personal best of 18.92 with the senior implement, which would have been good enough for bronze in Ostrava.

After finishing fourth at the world juniors last year, he did national service and found it hard at first to combine training with his duties, but then he started to improve and now he is ready. But what does he think of the transition from the junior shot.

“I don’t think there is a great deal of difference between the 6kg implement and the senior shot,” he explained. “It is my first year with it and I have been doing more power lifting but otherwise there is not a big difference.”

Coming off his new best at the beginning of July, he is hoping to breach the 19m barrier here to take a medal but predicts whoever wins will need 20m.

European Athletics – (EA) – News